The price of onion, which goes up at an exponential rate bringing tears to the people, has finally started moving downward.
Floods in Karnataka and Maharashtra and the inability to get the demanded quantity of onions from Kurnool led to rise in the price which even witnessed abnormal increase. In the first week of December, the price of the commodity touched ₹180 in the open market in the city. On Friday, the onion price came down to ₹80 giving a breather to the customers.
“Apart from heavy rains in Karnataka and Maharashtra, the quantity of onions produced in Kurnool were not sufficient to meet the rising demand. However, with the fresh harvest in Kurnool and Kadapa, wholesale dealers were able to procure stocks of good quantity,” said L. Balichakravarthi, Estate Manager, Rythu Bazar, adding that the stocks have doubled in the past week.
Mr. Chakravarthi expressed the hope that onion price would fall further in the coming few weeks as wholesale traders were now coming forward to procure more stocks.
“The fall in the price eases the burden as onion is an essential ingredient in different dishes. While the sale of onion at a subsidised price helped overcome the problem to some extent, the quality of the ‘bulb’ was not satisfactory,” said M. Padmaja, a resident.
