Onions: India urges Pakistan to resume exports

MUMBAI:

India is trying to persuade Pakistan to resume full exports of onions, Foreign Minister SM Krishna said on Friday, as food inflation weighs on Asia’s third-largest economy and fuels anger against the ruling coalition.

Pakistan banned overland exports of onions to India on January 4 with traders saying they feared shortages at home. Exports by sea are still allowed, but much of the trade used to be by road and rail, the cheaper modes that took the vegetable to Indian markets quickly.

“We have initiated talks and before not too long we are hopeful we will find a solution to this, easing pressure within our country for onions,” Krishna said in New Delhi.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2011.