Assam: Extra-large onions create a stir in Guwahati markets 

Guwahati: Onions are the talk of the town these days, particularly for selling at a whopping Rs 120 a kilo. But if you are in Guwahati or any other place in the Northeast, then you would be talking more about the sheer size than the price. Yes, you heard it right.

Onions at least six times bigger and 10 times heavier than the normal onions that we usually get from Nashik have hit the markets of Guwahati and other places of the Northeast.

“This one weighs almost 450 gm. I sold one onion that weighed almost a kilo,” a vegetable vendor at the city’s Fancy Bazar told EastMojo.

According to some of the stockists, these onions have landed in the Barpeta Road wholesale markets and are believed to have come from Turkey.

“I have been selling this variety of onions since Saturday. We were selling it for Rs 100 a kilo but people seemed very interested and curious and within two days I exhausted my stock. Now we are selling it for Rs 90 a kilo,” Munna Jaiswal, a vendor in Fancy Bazar said.

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Onions are selling at Rs 100-120 a kilo in metros and most cities. It is selling at as high as Rs 160 a kilo in certain parts of the country.

Government is importing onions from Turkey, Egypt and Afghanistan. More consignments are underway and this is expected to improve the domestic supplies.

Onion prices have shot up sharply due to estimated 25% fall in kharif production of 2019-20 crop year (July-June) compared to the previous year because of late monsoon and eventual excess rains in the major producing states.

Onion prices have failed to cool down despite several government measures in the last few weeks. The government has already banned export of onion, imposed stock limits on traders and is also supplying buffer stock at a cheaper rate.