CHANDIGARH:
Onions
were back to Rs 100 per kg on Tuesday, with the variety from Afghanistan doing little to wipe away the tears of city residents.
“Buyers are preferring onions from Alwar over those from Afghanistan. As the onions from the neighbouring country can’t be stored, people are buying them in lesser quantity,” said Rajesh Verma, a wholesaler in the Sector 26 vegetable market. He said residents feel it is better to buy fewer Indian onions than poor quality ones. Those from Afghanistan cost Rs 85 per kg.
Traders are also feeling the tension as the Afghanistan onions cannot be stocked for long and are not being purchased by retailers and residents. They said these onions are only bought by caterers.
Surekha Khanna, a resident of Sector 27, said, “We had hoped the prices will fall but nothing like this has happened. The price is out of the budget of a middle-class family.” She said street vendors have hiked the prices to Rs 130 per kg for Indian variety of onions.
Experts said the hike can be attributed to erratic supply and people sticking to Indian onions.