India Now Onions At A Price That’ll Make You Cry

Chandigarh, December 20

The sharp hike in prices of onions is literally making the common man cry. For the past 20 days, the price of the vegetable has been rising steadily, and it is now retailing across most cities in North India at anything between Rs 60 and Rs 70 per kg!

Till a week ago, onion -- the quintessential ingredient in most curries -- was retailing at Rs 28-Rs 30 a kg. Just two days back the prices took a jump and onions are now being sold at Rs 60-Rs 70 a kg. Even the wholesale price of onions jumped from Rs 10-Rs 15 per kg last week to the current Rs 35-Rs 45 per kg.

In Delhi, onion was retailing at Rs 60-Rs 65 per kg on Monday, whereas in Chandigarh it was retailing at Rs 65-Rs 70 per kg today. In Ludhiana, onions were available at Rs 60 per kg.

Vegetable traders in Delhi and Chandigarh, which are the terminal points for the crop before it is dispatched to other places across North India, say the supply of onions has come down by almost 50 per cent due to the untimely rains in October and November in the onion-producing states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Rajendra Sharma, general secretary of the Potato and Onion Merchants Association, Azadpur, Delhi, told TNS that only 80 tempos (each carrying 9 tonnes) and 20 truckloads of onions (each truck carrying 15 tonnes) arrived at the Azadpur market today from Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat. “This is almost 50 per cent short of the usual inflow of the crop, thus creating a supply constraint and hike in prices,” he said.

According to the information available with The Tribune, about 2,000-2,200 sacks (each sack containing 55 kg) of onions arrive in Chandigarh daily. This is not just meant for the local market, but also for the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh. Tej Pal, an onion trader here, said: “Most of the crop is coming from Alwar in Rajasthan, and because of the supply constraint, the prices have soared in the Azadpur mandi in Delhi, from where the wholesellers in the city get their supply.”

Other than onion, the prices of garlic too have shot up phenomenally. From Rs 60-Rs 70 a kg last week, garlic was retailing at Rs 200-Rs 230 a kg in various cities of North India today.

source:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101221/main7.htm

Re: Now onions at a price that’ll make you cry

We the middle class of India all should praise the Manmohan Singh,Sonia Gandhi and all the other politicians that are ruling the country from past few years for unleashing High food prices on us.

Re: Now onions at a price that’ll make you cry

It's not just India but is a worldwide phenomena.

http://oryza.com/Global-Rice/Global...ices-Moving-Towards-Record-High-Says-FAO.html

Analysts at the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, have revealed that world food markets face an unprecedented long-term rise in prices and are very likely to reach and even surpass record peaks in the near future.

The FAO's food price index, which monitors the monthly change in international prices of a basket of commodities, climbed to within seven points of its June 2008 record high in November at 205 points, data released this week showed. Most agricultural markets have seen bull runs this year as weather patterns damaged output from many key-producing regions. Grain markets have soared to near record peaks while sugar futures have hit their highest point since the early 80s, and many observers predict further increases ahead.

Re: Now onions at a price that’ll make you cry

findingmyway said:

It's not just India but is a worldwide phenomena.

http://oryza.com/Global-Rice/Global...ices-Moving-Towards-Record-High-Says-FAO.html

Analysts at the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, have revealed that world food markets face an unprecedented long-term rise in prices and are very likely to reach and even surpass record peaks in the near future.

The FAO's food price index, which monitors the monthly change in international prices of a basket of commodities, climbed to within seven points of its June 2008 record high in November at 205 points, data released this week showed. Most agricultural markets have seen bull runs this year as weather patterns damaged output from many key-producing regions. Grain markets have soared to near record peaks while sugar futures have hit their highest point since the early 80s, and many observers predict further increases ahead.

Click to expand...

I read the story in the Hindu this morning and just shook my head. Are we headed toward a worldwide situation where there are 2 classes of people? Those who eat? Those who starve?

Re: Now onions at a price that’ll make you cry

spnadmin said:

I read the story in the Hindu this morning and just shook my head. Are we headed toward a worldwide situation where there are 2 classes of people? Those who eat? Those who starve?

Click to expand...

I read an article today which was all doom and gloom about how the world is running out of food. I can't believe it though. I think it's a distribution problem and rises in food prices are through control by a few as in many other industries. Proof for this is ample!

Re: Now onions at a price that’ll make you cry

I believe you are right about that Jasleen ji. Distribution and several other factors, to include the problem with genetically engineered seed. This has impoverished the family farmer to the advantage of the large, agri-business corporations. That in and off itself adds to the price of food, because the large producers are not evenly spread worldwide, adding the cost of transportation and excise taxes to the cost of production. Entire economies have bottomed out because of this. The traditional Mexican farms are in trouble. Punjab agriculture is in trouble. It still bothers me a lot -- the rich and rich nations must come to their senses.

Re: Now Onions at a Price That’ll Make You Cry

The Coming Global Food Shortage


While you will never hear about it on the mainstream news, and while we can all walk into supermarkets and buy as much food as we want right now, the truth is that a massive global food shortage is coming. In fact, many scientists are now convinced that a horrific world famine is absolutely inevitable. Why? Well, as we will see below, it is a combination of things.

World population is exploding at the same time that overfarming, overfishing and environmental degradation are all starting to catch up with us. The truth is that now is the time to start preparing. Now is the time to build up an emergency food supply. Now is the time to begin storing up food. Because a food shortage that is so horrible that most of us cannot even imagine it is on the way, and when it hits it is going to be incredibly painful.

It is now being projected that global demand for food will more than double over the next 50 years. Right now there are over 6 billion people on earth. Around 2040 or so there will be 9 billion people on earth. By the 2060s, there would be over 11 billion people on earth. So where in the world are we going to get the food to feed all of those people?


A global food shortage is coming. There is no possible way that the world can produce enough food for that many people under the current system.

Already 1 billion people in the world go to bed hungry every single night.

Already somewhere in the world someone starves to death every 3.6 seconds and 3/4 of them are children under the age of 5.

Already approximately a third of all children in the world under the age of five suffer from serious malnutrition.

And the bad news is that the world simply does not have enough water to grow much more food.

Just consider the following quote from IWMI director general Colin Chartres....

"Current estimates indicate that we will not have enough water to feed ourselves in 25 years time, by when the current food crisis may turn into a perpetual crisis."

Not only that, but because of overfarming and pollution, we are rapidly losing farm land. Today almost 25% of the world’s farm land is affected by serious environmental degradation. That is up from 15% two decades ago.

In some of the biggest countries in the world the environmental situation is absolutely nightmarish.

For example, it is estimated by authorities that 75 percent of India's surface water is contaminated by human and agricultural waste. The truth is that there is over a billion people in India, but sanitation is still only just starting to be developed in many areas. So many people there just "use the toilet" wherever they can. In fact, according to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet.

But it just isn't places like India where rampant environmental degradation is a problem.

It is happening in the United States too.

It turns out that many big American cattle farms actually feed chicken manure to cattle because it is so inexpensive and because we produce far too much of it to properly dispose of as fertilizer.

So are you eating beef that is from cattle that were fed chicken manure every day?

How would you know?

Not only that, but the world cannot get much more food out of the oceans either. 29 percent of world fisheries are in a state of collapse according to Canadian scientist Boris Worm, and in the years ahead the world fishing industry may actually produce less food rather than more food.

But much more food will be needed in the years ahead.

The really sad thing is that we waste so much food right now. In developed countries we throw away anywhere from one-third to one-half of all food produced.

Considering the fact that so many people in the world are suffering from a lack of food, that is absolutely criminal.

In the years ahead we won't be wasting that much food. That is for certain. We will look back on these days when there was plenty of food with longing. These are still good times. Even though the world economy is starting to spin out of control, the truth is that we haven't seen anything yet. A devastating world economic collapse is on the way, and a global food shortage will follow shortly thereafter.

Are you ready?

source:
http://theemergencyfoodsupply.com/archives/the-coming-global-food-shortage

Re: Now onions at a price that’ll make you cry

findingmyway said:

It's not just India but is a worldwide phenomena.

http://oryza.com/Global-Rice/Global...ices-Moving-Towards-Record-High-Says-FAO.html

Analysts at the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, have revealed that world food markets face an unprecedented long-term rise in prices and are very likely to reach and even surpass record peaks in the near future.

The FAO's food price index, which monitors the monthly change in international prices of a basket of commodities, climbed to within seven points of its June 2008 record high in November at 205 points, data released this week showed. Most agricultural markets have seen bull runs this year as weather patterns damaged output from many key-producing regions. Grain markets have soared to near record peaks while sugar futures have hit their highest point since the early 80s, and many observers predict further increases ahead.

Click to expand...

Indian Food and other essential commodities price have little to do with international market.It is mainly connected with domestic production and distribuition.Let me give you example In 2008 Oil hit 140$ barrel yet we were paying here was rs. 45 for 1 litre of petrol and today when Oil is 90$ barrel
we are paying 58 rupees per litre ,now what is justification of paying less when price was high and now paying more.Similarly in 2008 Wheat price in international market rose to 430$ per ton and we paying Rs.160-170 for 10kg of wheat flour then in 2009 wheat prices wheat price came down to 160$ per tonne in international yet at that time we were paying 190 per 10 kg of flour
and now when price is 272 $ per tonne we are paying 200 per 10 kg of flour.

The food and fuel price in India is directly result of policies of Central and to some extent state Govts

Re: Now Onions at a Price That’ll Make You Cry

Soul jyot ji's article raises some important issues. Modern farming methods have degraded soil quality and squeezed out small scale sustainable farming. However, this can still be turned around. One way to make the rich pay attention is to change consumer habits. I avoid supermarkets and prefer local farmers markets or farm shops.
When you look at how much is wasted in some households and by commercial ventures such as restaurants then it is hard to believe there is a lack of food. When I was in India in August this year, I read in the paper that were were huge stockpiles of food in government stores in case of emergencies. It was left to rot rather than distribute to the the poor due to cost and logistics!! I am sure that is something that happens the world over so I cannot believe we will run out of land food.

Food from the sea is a whole other matter. Everyone should watch this docufilm (End of the Line)-it is incredible and a message that truly needs to be spread. Fish stocks are finishing fast (current estimates are 2030) and this will have a HUGE impact on the health of the planet
YouTube - The End of the Line Trailer

Soul jyot ji's article raises some important issues. Modern farming methods have degraded soil quality and squeezed out small scale sustainable farming. However, this can still be turned around. One way to make the rich pay attention is to change consumer habits. I avoid supermarkets and prefer local farmers markets or farm shops.

Click to expand...

Well The fact is if you leave Punjab Haryana and some other parts of India,modern farming and techniques are still not adopted farmers.Much farm produce of India is still dependent on rains,hardly any irrigation system.Onions are still produced in those area

When I was in India in August this year, I read in the paper that were were huge stockpiles of food in government stores in case of emergencies. It was left to rot rather than distribute to the the poor due to cost and logistics!! I am sure that is something that happens the world over so I cannot believe we will run out of land food.

Click to expand...

Well India has inefficent minister Sharad pawar is holding portfolio of agriculture and foods department.He is also president of ICC cricket .Many times this matter was raised that he is more interested in cricketing affairs than agricultural issue's.He also has large number of sugar mills.He is also very much responsible for the mess of food price in India.Just to fill pockets of Sugar mill owners he even allowed sugar exports at dirt cheap price of rs.12 sugar .While the price rose to upto rupees 45 in Indian market not it has come down to 35.
Yet because of political compulsion he was and not still removed from the post,that is why I am blaming PM and other politicians

It makes sense to keep our comments focused on the big picture - the world - as well as the more regional picture - India. The impact of climate, agri-business practices, birth curves, drought, political parties policies, all of these are being felt world wide. Food prices are soaring world wide.

India really is a case in point for what is happening elsewhere in the world, both the developing world and the developed world which if paying attention will notice that its own wealth is being steadily eroded.

Re: Now Onions at a Price That’ll Make You Cry

Jaspal Bhatti dressed as Santa gifted free onions to people in Chandigarh.

Accompanied by a group of boys and girls dressed as Santa Claus, the comedian-actor distributed onions among people at the fruit and vegetables market here Wednesday.

"This is the most expensive gift that we can give to people this Christmas. We have selected the bigger onions for the VIPs while the smaller ones are for the common man," Bhatti told the reporters.

Bhatti, who was accompanied by students of his MAD Arts School here, later presented a garland of vegetables, including onions, to his wife, Savita Bhatti.

They later sang a Christmas carol - a satire on the rising prices of onions and other vegetables of daily need.

"Onions can cheer up the common man more than chocolates can children. I appeal to all the Santa Claus of India to put onions in ladies' purses and stockings hung in homes to spread happiness around X-mas and the New Year," Bhatti said with tongue firmly in cheek.

Bhatti also appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get into Santa Claus's costume and start delivering onions to the common man.

Asked from where he was getting the money to buy onions at the prevailing exorbitant prices, he said: "We have got funding from those involved in the 2G scam. You will get to know about the funding agencies through WikiLeaks shortly."

Bhatti appealed to the police chief in Mumbai to provide him security cover while purchasing onions since there was a threat to anyone who possesses onions.

source: http://english.samaylive.com/weird-and-wonderful/676479683/santa-gives-onions-as-christmas-gift.html

Re: Now Onions at a Price That’ll Make You Cry

First of all -- the world is indebted to Bhatti ji. But will anyone who needs to get the humor in this really do so? I was ROFLMAO at this one

Asked from where he was getting the money to buy onions at the prevailing exorbitant prices, he said: "We have got funding from those involved in the 2G scam. You will get to know about the funding agencies through WikiLeaks shortly."

Click to expand...

This one - will they get it?

.

"This is the most expensive gift that we can give to people this Christmas. We have selected the bigger onions for the VIPs while the smaller ones are for the common man," Bhatti told the reporters.

Click to expand...

Re: Now Onions at a Price That’ll Make You Cry

Now, without any laughter, this article provides some background on how the price of onions skyrocketed. Not funny.

Who Stole My Onions?

The government’s regulation of the onion market came unstuck in December. SOPAN JOSHI examines how


The Producers
Maharashtra grows 26 percent of India’s onions, followed by Karnataka (19), Gujarat (9); Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar about 8 percent each. From July to December, the produce comes from Maharashtra and Karnataka. October to March from Rajasthan. January to July from Gujarat and MP. The onion crop takes 60-90 days to mature. Farmers harvest depending on prices. If the price is high, in two months; else they wait till the third month ends.

The Profiteers
Traders step into the chain even before the harvest. In certain places, they give farmers advances against produce; this helps them control the prices and gives farmers an assurance. Traders are networked across cities. The biggest exporters are in the biggest market: Nashik. Members of agricultural produce marketing committees are usually linked to political parties. This nexus is often blamed for lack of action against hoarders and black marketeers.

The Regulators
NAFED is a marketing federation that watches the market to protect farmers and consumers. One way is through controlling exports. Along with 11 state trading corporations, it sets minimum exports prices through the Price Fixation Advisory Committee; exports are encouraged in a glut, discouraged in a lean period. Till September, it kept the export price low and hiked them after the rains. But its reading of the market went wrong this time. And how.

TWO MONTHS ago, everybody was expecting a bumper crop of onions. Unseasonal rains in late September and October destroyed the crop. Yet, government agencies allowed traders to export 1.33 lakh tonnes in October. By the time the minimum export price was hiked to stop exports in November, the damage had already been done.

“People were expecting a good crop. Nobody wanted to hold on to stocks, fearing dropping prices,” says Planning Commission member Abhijeet Sen. Department of Consumer Affairs secretary Rajiv Agarwal adds, “We can’t have a pricing policy that keeps the prices so low that it hits the farmers.”

Besides, floods in Pakistan had destroyed the crops and the demand there was high. It looked like a good way to divert excess produce. Only, the excess produce just didn’t come through.

Was it too late before exports were curbed? “No, I don’t think it was too late,” says NAFED managing director Sanjeev Chopra. “There was no sudden transformation for this unprecedented rise in prices of onions. Nobody can explain, there was no report of major damage.”

Chopra puts the price hike down to panic created by the media. “On 17 November, two journalists came to see me. I explained to them the production scenario of onions. The media reported the next day that onion prices might rise to Rs. 100 a kg. I must say, the media should be more responsible.”

The damage wasn’t that insignificant, going by consolidated numbers that came in on 23 December. In Maharashtra and Karnataka, it was estimated at 40 percent: in other major onion growing states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, it was 15-20 percent.

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar — as also onion traders — put the price rise squarely down to supply shortage due to damaged crops. But that would explain only a gradual increase in prices as supply wore thin. That did not happen. Prices spiked suddenly in the third week of December. Which indicates hoarding by traders to create an artificial gap and jack up prices.

“It is a well-known fact that traders in Nashik (India’s biggest onion market) work in a cartel,” says I Haq, former chairman of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices. Looking at the sudden price fluctuation, Haq suspects market manipulation by big market players.

A besieged UPA government finds itself at the receiving end of additional pressure. A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Pawar to take all necessary steps, the wholesale prices were dropping; Delhi’s Azadpur mandi sold onions at Rs. 30-40 per kg on 23 December. Black marketeers have a tough time hoarding the monsoon crop; its moisture content is high, and it cannot be stored for more than two weeks (winter and summer crops can last up to six months in storage due to lower moisture).

But the retail prices were still high. Agarwal says the highest prices were reported in Delhi ( Rs. 64 per kg), Thiruvananthapuram ( Rs. 72 per kg), and Tiruchirapalli ( Rs. 75 per kg). The average retail price across the country was Rs. 50 per kg.


http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne010111Who_Stole.asp

Blackmarketing..Hoarding...politics..greedy businessmen...Nature...each and all have something to do with this...

Just look at the SUPER-VAST food reserves of wheat and rice ROTTING AWAY in PUNJAB....and Punjab Farmers comitting suicides because of debt due to not getting good returns on their Produce...and people elsewhere Starving to DEATH becasue the food they need is ROTTING in PUNJAB... I had the misfortune to meet so many Farmers who were spending sleepless nights and days WAITING for their produce to be "bought" at the Grain Markets around Diwali....and evrything was being DELAYED..on PURPOSE..This is POLITICS....arranged.....so that the Punjabi Farmer dies becasue he produced TOO MUCH..and the Biharee dies becasue he is not allowed to get at the Over-produced rice in Punjab..and the POLITICIAN WIN WIN WIN...in Punjab by promising to buy if he wins..and in Bihar by promising food for the hungry if he wins...

Natural disasters...rains either too early or too late..transport woes..expensive diesel..no electricity..no water or irrigation..wastage of irrigation waters....no fertilisers..no labour..etc etc etc..so many pieces to this jigsaw puzzle..and so many Masters playing and hiding the pieces behind their backs

And it looks as if it backfired,

.and so many Masters playing and hiding the pieces behind their backs

Click to expand...

Re: Now Onions at a Price That’ll Make You Cry

Hoarders leave farmers in the lurch

December 25, 2010

Alok Singh - The Daily Pioneer - Chandigarh

Onion farmers are being paid a pittance compared to the price of the vegetable in the market which is Rs 70 per kilogram. Farmers say that they are currently getting only Rs 15 to Rs 20 per kg from traders and blame the hoarders for high prices.

"The Government must act against hoarding and provide neighbourhood storage facilities to farmers to check skyrocketing prices of several essential commodities," Gurnam Singh, Punjab unit president of Consortium of Indian Farmers Association, said.

"It is stockers, commission agents and hoarders who get the profit when prices rise. When the price of the onion rose, the commission agents started hoarding the vegetable. The farmers are getting only Rs 15-20 per kg," added Singh.

Since there is no Government storage facility in the neighbouring areas, the hoarders buy farm products and sell them at higher prices. "If hoarding-driven prices are to be checked and farmers' interests are to be protected, then the Government must provide adequate storage facility to the farmers," added Singh.

"At the same time, the Government must fix the minimum support price for all important farm products. At present, farmers have no option, but to play into the hands of the hoarders. It is the middlemen who have the last laugh," said Avtar Singh, a farmer from Ambala in Haryana.

Singh said among 500Hoarders leave farmers in the lurch crops the Union Government has categorised only 16 for MSP. That results in crisis of other crops during natural calamities or shortage due to other reasons. "The Government should fix MSP for other crops as well so that injustice is not done to them," added Singh.

Punjab unit CIFA president Satman Singh Behru said: "The condition of farmers all over India is very bad. It is the stockers and commission agents who get full benefits of price rise."

"The problem with farmers is stocking. If they have sufficient space to preserve their crops, they can also get good price from the stockers. In January, we are going to hold a meeting in Bangalore and would deliberate on such issues," Behru said.

source:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/306106/Hoarders-leave-farmers-in-the-lurch.html

It's horrendous how people get away with such dirty tactics. In the UK, supermarkets control prices and a lot of farmers despair as the prices are really unfair, especially when compared to the prices in shops. On a more global scale, the movie I mentioned above shows how Mitsubishi is hoarding stocks of bluefin tuna. This drives up prices immediately and also ensures very high profits in the future as it is near extinction so once the natural stocks are depleted they can charge the sky :disguestedkudi:
Only consumers have the power to reverse these trends. If consumers focus on local produce direct from farmers, there will be less space for the racketeers to manoeuvre I think :idea:

The ONION is not an absolutely essential item...iF Consumers had laid off consuming it just for a week..all the Hoarders" DHOTIS/PANTS/PAJAMAS would have dropped to the floor and they would be begging people to buy onions or giving them away free...(to save on the cost of freezers).
Consumers must learn how to be united as the businessmen are....
Personally its a rule for me...NO BUYING whatever is the CRAZE of the Day/week. If its Tomatoes that are through the roof..i stay off tomatoes and use bottled puree (if absolutley essential)...IF its Garlic..then i substitute with more onions...if its Carrots..then NO Carrots for a week...and the Second part of this rule is..BUY whatevers price is DOWN..in large quantities...so if its cucumbers selling cheap..i eat more cucumbers and less radishes...in my salad....or the other way around....So "high" prices DONT AFFECT ME !!! I havent had an onion in my salad since the prices began to rise in early December...and there wont be an onion in my house till the prices drop.motherlylovemotherlylovemotherlylovemotherlylovemotherlylovemotherlylove

wahkaurGyani ji, if even 20% of consumers changed their habits like you have, can you imagine how much less power these greedy politicians and organisations will have!!