Record onion exports make consumers pay high prices

Unprecedented onion exports fetched $210 million during July-April FY24 at the cost of inflation-hit consumers who paid record prices for the vegetable. “Onion exports may soar to $250m by the end of the current fiscal year,” claimed All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association Patron-in-Chief Waheed Ahmed, dispelling market impression that higher exports have caused a price flare-up in the country’s main staple food item. Pakistani consumers paid Rs300-350 per kg for onion following the Indian export ban from Dec 8, 2023 to April this year. New Delhi lifted the ban in the first week of May, bringing down the national average price to Rs70-150 per kg. “The price increase has nothing to do with the export shipments. It is the job of the price regulator to check fleecing of consumers by market forces,” Mr Waheed said, giving an example that “if the wholesale price of onion is Rs150 and retailers are charging Rs300, then exports cannot be blamed for local price hike”.