Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Dec 30: Onion prices, after hitting the peak last week, have been showing declining trend since the last couple of days. While wholesale onion merchants expect prices to go up a little in the short term in view of the recent rain, as a whole, the prices are expected to come down and stabilize by the second week of January.

After a long time, the prices of onion, on account of heavy rains in the onion growing belts, had gone up drastically, even touching Rs 200 mark in some places. Although the prices showed ups and down, now they have stabilized between Rs 70 to 80 per kg for certain types of onions. Even the onion imported from Egypt and Turkey are sold at Rs 60 to 65 per kg in the wholesale market and Rs 70 to 80 per kg in retail. Indigenously grown onions command a price of Rs 90 to 100 per kg. Some wholesalers feel that importing of onions from the above countries takes a long time to reach here and the quality of onions suffers during the time of transportation, which results in lower prices of these onions.

As people are buying onions now only on the basis of daily needs, merchants too are not getting onions on large scale, as they expect prices to go down further. Although the prices are bound to go down during January when fresh stock from growers is expected to reach the markets, untimely rains might interfere with the expectations and make prices to go up again, some merchants caution the consumers.