Centre to procure 2L tonne of onions for buffer stock

Nashik: The union govt has decided to procure two lakh tonne of onions through its agencies National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) and National Cooperatives' Consumers Federation of India (NCCF), in the next few months starting from the first week of May.This year, central agencies Nafed and NCCF will procure one lakh tonne of onions each to create a buffer stock. However, the target for onion procurement target is 33% fewer as compared to the onion procurement done during last year.In the last financial year 2025-26, the Centre procured three lakh tonne of summer onions. Both NAFED and NCCF had also procured one lakh tonne of onions each.Sources from the central agencies said that there has been a drop at the wholesale onion prices in the APMCs. The average wholesale price of summer onions is between Rs1,100 and Rs1,250 per quintal at the APMCs. It may drop further due lack of the demand from the international markets. Hence, there seems to be no scarcity of onions this year. Hence, the onion procurement target has been reduced to two lakh tonne this year, as compared to three lakh tonne last year.The Centre has also been creating a buffer stock of onions for a few years to stabilize the erratic wholesale onion prices and to meet a potential onion scarcity that could arise between the months of Aug and Sept."This year, the Centre has instructed both central agencies to procure onions through primary cooperative societies, cooperative institutes and co-operative market federations, who are expected to procure onions directly from the farmers from the Agriculture Produce Market Committees," said an NCCF official.The NCCF will also float a tender in the next three days to involve primary co-operative societies, cooperative institutes and market federations in the procurement process. The onion procurement will be done under the Price Stability Funds (PSF).Around 80% of the produce to be procured in Nashik district alone, while remaining 20% of the summer procurement would be received in other onion growing pockets across the state.