1,000 tonnes onion coming from Afghanistan every day: Traders

Chandigarh, Aug 28: Onion supplies from Afghanistan have surged in the past few days with about 1,000 tonnes of kitchen staple coming per day to India through Attari-Wagah land route, say traders.

As the import feasibility level is high in case of Afghanistan, supplies may continue for the next 15-20 days, they said. "Onion import from Afghanistan has increased as daily 20-25 big trucks carrying about 1,000 tonnes of commodity are coming into India through Attari-Wagah land route," Rajdeep Uppal, former Chairman of CII (Amritsar zone), told PTI today.

Few days back, only 6-7 trucks carrying onions were coming from Afghanistan. "Imports from Afghanistan are likely to continue for about 15-20 days," said Uppal.

Imported supplies are going to Punjab, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, UT Chandigarh and Haryana, traders said.

Traders further said that arrival of imported onions have also helped in curbing the rising prices of commodity. "Impact on imported onion is being visible on the wholesale prices," they said adding onion from Afghanistan was commanding wholesale rate of Rs 15-30 per kg.

Onion is still fetching the rate of Rs 55-60 per kg in the retail market in several parts of Punjab. However, they further said the quality of imported onion was not superior as they are unripe.

"We expect quality of onions may improve in coming days," they said.

Meanwhile, traders said there is no likelihood of Pakistan allowing export of its onion to India via Attari-Wagah land route, saying the size of onion crop in Pakistan is also not very big.

Traders had earlier onion was imported from Pakistan in January 2011 and from Afghanistan in September 2013 in the wake of supply crunch in India.

PTI