Post News Network
Cuttack, August 2: A decline in the supply of onion from Maharashtra and a few southern states has raised its price at the Chhatrabazar wholesale market in the city here.
Now the bulb is being sold between Rs 35 and Rs 38 at the wholesale market, with the retail prices of the commodity varying fromRs 43 to Rs 45 in the city here.
The wholesale market of Chhatrabazar, which meets the needs of Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur districts, needs an estimated 100 tonnes of onion daily. However, damage of onion crops in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, has resulted in a supply crunch, sources said.
“Now, we are getting only two trucks of onion against the requirement of seven trucks for a day. Moreover, most of the traders at Chhatrabazar do not have the proper cold storage to stock the edible for a long period. So, we have no mechanism to check the rise in onion price,” said Chhatrabazar traders’ association president Debendra Sahu.
District civil supplies officer Amar Mahapatra, however, claimed that there is no shortage of onion at Chhatrabazar wholesale market. “A few cold storages at Chhatrabazar have onion stocks to meet the emergency. We are regularly monitoring the situation. The civil supplies department secretary has convened a meeting of all civil supplies officers August 3 to chalk out a strategy to meet the onion shortage in the state,” Mahapatra said.