The average wholesale price of the newly harvested kharif onions (of Pol variety) in the Lasalgaon agriculture produce marketing committee (APMC), which was around Rs 300 per quintal, rose to about Rs 400 per quintal on Wednesday. The prices ranged from Rs 200 to Rs 450 per quintal, depending on the quality of the crop. For the old stock of onions (harvested during the Rabi season in April-May), the average price did not register any significant rise and remained around Rs 250 per quintal. The summer crop fetched a lower price as it has outlived its shelflife.

The arrivals at the Lasalgaon APMC dropped from about 180 tractor trailors (each carrying about 30 quintals) last week, to only 57 tractor trailors on Wednesday. The drop in the arrivals came in the wake of the Union Government'sannouncement of relaxing the export ban on onions, to allow one lakh tonnes of exports.

Farmers, who had resorted to a panic sale of onions, fearing that the prices would further plummet within a month (with the ban in force and a bumper kharif crop in the offing) have started witholding the new crop in the hope that the lifting of the export ban would bring in better prices. The only problem is that the newly harvested kharif crop is highly perishable and has a shelflife of less than one month, unlike the summer crop which can be stored upto six months.

In the Pimpalgaon-Baswant APMC, the average wholesale price of the new crop rose from about Rs 250 per quintal to Rs 375 per quintal on Wednesday. The arrivals at various APMCs are likely to increase within a fortnight as the harvesting of kharif onions has started.

The export of onions had been banned last year, when the failure of the kharif crop had led to skyrocketing of prices to an all time high of Rs 4,000 per quintal.