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After 2-mo delay, onion procurement likely to start next week
This story was originally published at 14:24 IST on 13 June 2025
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By Pallavi Singhal
NEW DELHI – The Centre is likely to commence onion procurement next week, almost two months behind schedule, a senior government official said. The delay is due to "operational issues" faced by National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. and National Consumers Cooperative Federation of India Ltd. in carrying out procurement in and around Maharashtra, according to the official.
The consumer affairs ministry has set a procurement target of 300,000 tonnes for buffer stocks for the year ending March, sharply lower than last year's procurement of 470,000 tonnes. This year, procurement was initially set to begin on Apr. 25, Informist had exclusively reported. A significant portion of the total procurement – 66%, or 200,000 tonnes – is slated to come from Nashik. The rest will be sourced from other districts in Maharashtra, including Pune, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Latur, and Aurangabad. It was planned that procurement would be carried out gradually, with 10% of the total quantity to be procured in April, 45% in May, and the remaining 45% in June.
Despite the significant delay, the government does expect to face problems in procurement. "We are confident of procuring the amount we need to. Instead of the procurement unfolding at a lower pace, we will procure aggressively," the official said.
This year, the government doesn't actually see the need to procure onions, the official said. "We are not seeing any significant seasonal price rise in the commodity this year on the back of higher kharif arrivals, which will likely begin to flood the market sooner than usual. We think a buffer will not even be needed," the official said.
The first advance estimate by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare shows production of rabi onions in 2024-25 (Jul-Jun) is expected to stand at 22.7 million tonnes, up 18% on year. Onion prices tend to increase during the lean period of September to November due to the gap between rabi and kharif crops; it is during this period that the consumer affairs ministry steps in to control the rise in prices.
India produces around 28-30 million tonnes of onion annually. The country is among the world's largest producers of the crop, with rabi onion accounting for nearly 75% of the country's total production. Last year, the government had procured as much as 470,000 tonnes of rabi onion for the price stabilisation buffer and started releasing the stock from Sept. 5 through subsidised retail and bulk sales in major mandis across the country. Currently, the all-India average price of onion is INR 2,079 per 100 kg, down 1.8% on month. End
Edited by Avishek Dutta
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