Onion prices at India’s largest wholesale market for the vegetable in Maharashtra’s Lasalgaon dropped by 35% – from Rs 1,400 per quintal to Rs 900 per quintal – on Wednesday.
The plunge followed income tax raids at the warehouses, offices and houses of seven onion traders in Nashik district. Several traders refused to sell their stock at the auction on Thursday after the prices crashed, The Times of India reported on Friday.
Two of the seven traders raided are from the district, said Jaydatta Holkar, chairperson of the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee. “These traders have the capacity to buy 30% of the total arrivals in the market,” he said. “The IT raids created panic among onion traders and led to the crash in prices.”
In August, officials of the Ministry of Consumers Affairs had visited the Lasalgaon market to study the fluctuation in wholesale onion prices. Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture had asked authorities of Nashik district for details of the cost of the vegetable.
Farmers in at least 16 states had protested for better prices for their crops in June after the Uttar Pradesh government had announced farm loan waivers. Farmers in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh had gone on strike and boycotted markets.
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