After potato, onion price skyrockets

KOLKATA: First the potato and now the onion the Bengali's best friends in kitchen have been acting pricey this festive season. Reeling under the price pinch, market-goers who know their onions have seen both vegetables gradually slip out of their grasp. While potatoes have held out at a steady Rs 20-22 a kg, onions have jumped from Rs 16 to Rs 25-plus in a week.
Add to that the spurt in the price of other eggs, fish and other vegetables, the city is staring at a horror Diwali and Bhai Phonta. Only a few months back, around 30% of the daily food budget was spent on buying potatoes and onions.
Kolkata gets around 100 trucks fetching approximately 1,000 tonnes of onions daily from Maharashtra's Nashik, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The flood situation in the southern states has spelled doom in Bengal. This week onwards, about eight-nine truckloads of onions are coming to the city every day. Hardly enough to meet the city's needs.
Kolkatans are already feeling the heat. The commonest variety of fish rohu and katla are being sold at Rs 220 per kg. Small fish like tangra, parshe and bhekti range from Rs 180-Rs 200. Eggs West Bengal has the highest per capita consumption in the country are now priced at Rs 3. 50 apiece.
In central Kolkata markets, the sellers have fixed different prices for onions. The possibility of the situation improving by the end of this month appears dim. There is also a question mark on the quality of onions available. Some of the stock which arrived from the southern states had reportedly rotted in the rain.
"The old stock from Nashik has been exhausted. The next crop will be harvested around 15 days from Diwali, after which it will reach the market. If the flood situation doesn't improve in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, it will get even tough," said Ashok Yadav of Posta's onion merchants' association.
In Indian politics onion has played a tricky role. In 1998 when prices of onion shot up to Rs. 60 in the national capital, the then BJP-led government lost the elections. The BJP government in Delhi had even tried to sell onion at Rs 15 per kg at Mother Dairy outlets but the move didn't fetch votes.
State finance minister Asim Dasgupta had tried to do something similar with potatoes, making them available to ration card-holders at Rs 13 in select city markets. The move was to be expanded to the district towns but was never a success. At the markets, potatoes continue to be sold at a higher price.
The wholesale marketers claim that prices have shot up in Nashik and other places. "If we have to buy from the wholesellers at Rs. 25, how can we sell it at a lower rate?" asked Swapan Dutta, a vegetable seller at the College street market.
State agriculture marketing minister Mortaza Hussein said the government was concerned about the situation. "After potatoes, the sudden escalation of onion prices is extremely worrying. We have just managed to keep price of potatoes under control, " Hussein said.
The minister is currently out of station and will be back on Monday. "I am calling a meeting on Monday with the departments concerned to review the situation and look for a solution," he said.