The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said that the government is monitoring Onion exports and prices on a daily basis to ensure stable domestic prices.
In a statement on Monday, the Ministry said the decision to impose a Minimum Export Price of 800 dollars per tonne on onion has shown an immediate impact of price correction in Maharashtra markets. It said that the weighted average price of Onion in Maharashtra across all the markets has declined by 4.5 per cent. It added that a similar decline was observed in consumption centres as well.
The Ministry said in view of increasing demand in the month of November it has started releasing Onion Buffer stock into the market both through mandi sales and discounted sales to retail consumers at centres of high prices.
This includes retail sales through 685 Mobile retail outlets covering over 170 cities. The Ministry added that NAFED and NCCF have also started procuring an additional 2 LMT onions of kharif harvest to be distributed in high-price centres to keep the onion prices under control.