From Egypt to Koyambedu in Chennai - Onions travel long distance now
Posted on: 10/Dec/2019 9:49:12 AM
Who would have thought that one day onions would be imported from Egypt?
There has been huge demand for the onions in Chennai now. To meet the demand, some private onion traders have imported more than 35 tonnes of onions from Egypt. It is important to mention here that the onion stocks have arrived in Chennai from Egypt.
The traders were not sure about the prices of unions (that touched Rs 200 per kilogram on Sunday) would come down or not as it was too early to predict. By the month of January 2020, the onion prices would come down.
Mr. S. Chandran, president, Koyambedu Market Licensed Merchant’s Association, expressed his thoughts about the onions. He spoke about how just 30 to 40 truckloads carrying onions arrive at Chennai market every day from places like AP, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The demand is up to 80 truckloads now. He added that some goods of onions were of poor quality and hence the price of premium quality onions in wholesale went up to Rs 180.
According to Mr. V. R. Soundararajan, onion trader’s association president, it was too early to say whether this onion stock would bring down the cost or not. He mentioned that in another 2 weeks of time new yield would reach the markets and if that happens by early January then prices would come down to Rs 60 per kilogram.
For making several states to import onions, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India, apex organization of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India along with MMTC are providing their support. It was later brought out by a trader that stock is routed through Mumbai port and within few days around 500 tonnes of onions are expected in TN. It must not be forgotten that in the last week of November an official statement revealed about MMTC’s order for the onions from Egypt.
