After price hike, now traders resort to hoarding of onions

PS Bali

Jammu Tawi, January 15

Owing to the inflation of various edible products in the market, especially onion and tomatoes, some local dealers and traders in the wake of earning more profit have allegedly started hoarding the commodity, leaving commoners to lurch.

On the one side soaring rate of tomatoes and onions has broken the back-bone of the commoner, whereas on the other side hoarding has added to their miseries.

With tomatoes over Rs 35-40 per kg and onions with Rs 47-50 per kg have shaken the budget of common man and now shortage has multiplied their woes.

Some shopkeepers at the terminal points, say the supply of onions has come down by almost 50 per cent as the crop was damaged due to unprecedented rains, whereas the most of the crop has been hoarded by big players.

“For the sake of earning more profit, some self interested dealers have hoarded large quantity of onions and tomatoes,” said a vegetable vendor, Subash, adding that due to their greed, “we have to sell it on exorbitant rates.” The increase in onion and tomato rates is turning profitable only for such dealers and not for others.  

He further said that the hike in onion and tomato rates is likely to jump more as huge quantity of consignment is stocked for black-market.

Talking to Newspoint, president, Jammu Vegetable Association, Vijay Kumar said that there is less supply of onion from main markets, as huge quantity has been spoiled due to unprecedented rains, so there is a less chance of hoarding by traders. He said on an average around 10-20 trucks reach Jammu mandi, daily with onions, but due to shortage in the main markets, this time only one truck reached here.

He anticipated that with the arrival of new crop this price spiral will see a decline. “It will take more than 15-20 days to get the new crop and once this reaches the markets, prices of onions will also come down.