The onion auction in Nashik district came to a grinding stop on Monday, after traders stayed away in protest against the Centre’s announcement imposing stock limits. Before 3 days, the govt had issued a notification setting a stock limit of 25-MT for wholesale traders and 2-MT for retail traders across the country, to make easy the release of stocks in the market and avoid hoarding by traders. The Centre has asked the state govts to severely enforce stock limits and perform anti-hoarding operations against unprincipled traders by organizing raids.

In Nashik district alone, about 1.50 lakh quintals of onion are auctioned every day, in normal times. However, onion grower Jayadatta Holkar said, untimely rains had damaged onions put away in storage by farmers. At present, at the daily auction, between 75,000 and 1 lakh quintals are sold, as farmers are busy disposing of stock in storage. He said that there is no auction expected to take place on Tuesday either, as traders have objected to the imposition of stock limit. The lack of auction may impact supply, which may affect prices, especially in the retail market,.

Onion prices in the retail market are at this time in the range of Rs90 to Rs110 per kg, depending on the location. The govts’s decision comes days after it barred onion exports and later, relaxed rules for imports. It had also fixed the Minimum Export Price of USD 850 FOB. per MT.

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