Jamshedpur, Aug. 9: Concerned over skyrocketing prices of onions, the State Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Roy has directed deputy commissioner of all the district to take steps to stem the rise.
While onion prices have increased to nearly 100 per cent in the last one week the prices of coriander leaves, beans and brinjal have increased marginally between 10 and 20 per cent in the last few days in the retail market in city.
Onion is an essential commodity in the kitchen. With the rise in prices of vegetables in general, the continuous hike in onion prices is hitting the common man very hard.
Buyers in markets across the country said that they are looking for ways to cut down on onion consumption. But despite efforts, an ingredient as essential as onions is hard to cut back on.
Traders too echoed a similar sentiment. Many said that the jump in prices of onion is because of a drop in supply and there little to be except reduce consumption.
Retailers said that the high procurement prices has been fixed at vegetable procurement hubs like Nashik due to damage of crops in the heavy rains.
�I went to purchase onion and was surprised to find the price between Rs 32 and Rs 35 at Sakchi. I had got information that barely two weeks back the prices were between Rs 15 and Rs 16. Not only onions even prices of tomato have increased to Rs 80 as against Rs 45 in the last few days,� said Uma Goenka, a housewife from� Jugsalai.
And if wholesalers are to be believed customers have to bear with such high prices of onion for at least till Durga Puja.
�As per our information huge quantities of onions have got damaged in the recent rains at Nashik and there is little chance of prices reducing at the moment. Prices will reduce only after new onion crops come to the market in the last week of September,� said, a wholesaler and a senior functionary of the Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
According to data available at the Parsudih based Krishi Utpadan Bazaar Samiti�a wing of the Jharkhand State Agricultural Marketing Board�city has a supply of nearly 300 tons of onions� daily.
A onion shop-keeper, Nandu Prasad said that those deal with onion are also badly hit as their earning has reduced due to a sharp rise in the prices of onion.
