India my face onion shortage due to weak monsoon

NEW DELHI: Poor monsoon is expected to hamper onion cultivation in major producing region. Maharashtra and Gujarat are seeing fall in sowing area of this key kitchen item nearly by half. The drip in area would impact onion supply in October-December period and could raise the price of this essential commodity in the domestic market.

In the national capital, onion is selling at Rs 10-15 a kg currently.

The sowing of kharif onion that kicked off from July 15 will end by August 15. Currently, India has a stock of close to 18 lakh tonnes of onion. Nearly 3-4 lakh tonnes of the bulb is needed every month for the meeting the domestic need.

The onion export jumped by nearly 32,000 tonnes during the first three months of 2012-13 as against the same period last year.

India exported 4,61,854 tonnes of onions in April- June period this year as compared to 4,29,802 tonnes during the same period last year.