Poor harvest triples onion prices in India and forces the world’s largest seller to import the commodity from Afghanistan, Egypt and Turkey.
A labourer segregates onions inside Shivshankar Trading Company’s onion storehouse at Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Lasalgaon, Nashik district, India, on Saturday, Aug 31, 2013. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
Onions in India are once more at the epicenter of a major controversy, pitting government officials who want lower prices against farmers that need extra income. The onion is India’s most “political” vegetable.///CRIMSON TAZVINZWA//
The Indian onion crisis involves the dramatic rise in the cost of onions across India. The crisis is caused by devastating monsoons that destroyed this golden cooking ingredients that has fed Indians for donkey years
An onion shop at Indore Mandi on Sunday. Onion prices have gone up more than threefold in the past fortnight. (Shankar Mourya/HT)( )
Prices of the vegetable, as ubiquitous as spices in Indian cooking, surged more than 200% in September from previous months after flooding from heavy monsoon rains damaged crops and reduced supplies. That’s prompted the government to ban exports and crack down on hoarding to lower prices, angering farmers who took to the streets on Monday in protest.
The onion, whose soaring prices have been blamed for bringing down past governments, puts Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tight spot