By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 22, 2020: A steep hike in the prices of onions in the state has once again come as a rude shock to consumers. It has surpassed the onions sold at Rs 80 per kilogram in December last year and is now selling at Rs 90 a kg.

The Odisha government has asked district collectors to keep a close watch on the price and availability of onion in the market and utilize the services of the field functionaries to frequently inspect both wholesale and retail businesses of the vegetable keeping the spike in prices of onions in the State.

In a letter to all the district collectors, the State Food Supplies department has mentioned that even though onion price rise is a national phenomenon, unscrupulous traders may resort to high profiteering and so the authorities need to ensure availability of the bulb at reasonable prices to needy consumers.

Untimely and prolonged rains during month of September and October, 2019 caused damage to Kharif onion crop leading to short supply and increase in its prices, according to the union government.

Heavy rains damaged standing Kharif crops in Nashik and other major onion producing regions of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh leading to a sharp rise in the prices of onions in Odisha.

The prices only are expected to come down post Diwali with fresh harvest of onions from Nashik in Maharashtra, according to Odisha Traders’ Association, General Secretary Sudhakar Panda.

The union government in September had banned the export of all varieties of onions apparently to balance the demand and supply gap of the vegetable in the domestic market.