Exporters have announced the resumption of onion export after prices stabilised in the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) Patron-in-Chief Waheed Ahmed said exporters had placed a self-imposed ban on onion export to regulate prices in the domestic market.
“Now that local price of the commodity has stabilised, they are resuming exports,” he said. “We will begin exporting the commodity from November 27.”
According to Ahmed, the ban proved to be extremely fruitful in reducing onion prices in the local market. Prior to the suspension of exports, he said, onion was being sold for Rs2,800 per 40 kg.
The increase in yield of onion in Sindh coupled with the impact of suspension of exports pushed the price down to Rs1,300 per 40 kg, said Ahmed. “Exports help growers, therefore, we are resuming exports to provide them with better prices.”
He requested the government to impose a ban on the import of onion and tomato from Iran as it dealt a blow to the domestic growers. On the other hand, the growers claim that the government took measures to slow down the export of onion to stabilise prices in the domestic market.
“Over the last 15 days, there has been no export of onion as the federal government introduced technical barriers,” said Sindh Abadgar Board Senior Vice President Mehmood Nawaz Shah.
In comments to The Express Tribune, he said the wholesale price of onion had gone down from Rs60 per kg to Rs38 in the local market. He elaborated that the price included transportation, commission and labour charges.
Shah pointed out that farmers were receiving approximately Rs20 per kg. “It is fallacious to expect that prices of agricultural commodities will remain constant,” he said. He pointed out that when the price of onion fell below the cost of production, there was no support price mechanism in place to help the growers and in such a scenario, they suffered tremendous losses. In India, commodity prices were never allowed to fall below certain declared rates, he said.
“Duty-free import of onion continues in Pakistan and the commodity is being imported irrespective of the domestic production,” he said.
The price of onion in Pakistan was the lowest in the region whereas the cost of production was the highest, he said, adding that due to reimposition of lockdown, domestic demand was dropping and prices were expected to decline further.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2020.
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