Onions, coconuts and the politics of taste in South Asia

Shortages of onions in India, coconuts in Sri Lanka and cooking oil in Bangladesh pose serious political challenges.

NEW DEHLI: A shortage of onions in India, a dearth of coconuts in Sri Lanka and soaring price of cooking oil in Bangladesh are currently posing a serious challenge to the governments of all three countries. The issue is more cultural than nutritional.

Nobody is going to starve in India because of an onion shortage, but their food is either going to taste different or it is going to cost them more to keep it tasting the same — and that makes a lot of people unhappy.

The current “onion crisis” in India has seen prices triple to nearly Rs80 a kilogramme (88 cents a pound), triggering allegations of hoarding, official incompetence and price-ramping by traders. Already under pressure over food inflation and wary of historical precedent, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government has stepped in forcefully, banning onion exports, scrapping import taxes and even trucking in onions from neighbouring Pakistan.

But shoppers at a vegetable market in south Delhi, like Avinash Sangar who has been forced to halve his weekly onion purchase, were still furious. In the meantime, the Times of India is running tips from five-star hotel chefs on cooking onion-less curries, and an enterprising tyre trader in Jharkand state is offering free onions with every purchase (five kilos for a truck tyre, one kilo for a car tyre).

In Sri Lanka, the government has also been forced to step in to alleviate a severe coconut shortage, banning the felling of coconut palms and, for the first time, arranging nut imports from India and Malaysia. Last week, the government set a ceiling retail price of 30 Sri Lankan rupees (27 US cents) per coconut in a network of state-owned stores, but stocks quickly sold out and then reappeared at more than double the price on the black market.

In Bangladesh, the problem is a surge in the price of cooking oil, especially the edible palm oil used by most families. The government, which sets the prices, has been quick to place the blame on traders, accusing them of ignoring state guidelines and profiteering. Others insist the authorities are not doing enough to enforce price caps.

After the cost of cooking oil shot up nearly 20 per cent in a single day in November, the High Court in Dhaka ordered the government to explain why its inaction should not be declared illegal.

Anwar Hossain, a Dhaka-based grocer, said he was compelled to pass price hikes by his suppliers on to the consumer. “Customers are enraged when they see the price jumps, but they have no choice but to buy it,” Hossain said.

Published in The  Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2010.