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Onions Worth Lakhs Keep Getting Stolen as Prices Skyrocket

Onions worth over $11,000 were stolen from a warehouse in Patna, while another theft amounting to over $1,000 was reported in Nashik.
Shamani Joshi
Mumbai, IN
Onions worth lakhs keep getting stolen as prices skyrocket
Photo via Pixabay

From being an essential accompaniment to your butter chicken binge to adding the right crunch and flavour to your bhel, onions are an important ingredient in every Indian kitchen. But lately, onion prices have been soaring, with the vegetable which is usually priced at Rs 20 to Rs 40 a kilo shooting up to Rs 80, and projected to hit Rs 100. And as onion prices continue to skyrocket across India, reports of growers’ godowns being raided keep coming up as well.

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On Monday, September 23, Dheeraj Kumar—an onion grower from the city of Patna in Bihar—reported an onion theft worth Rs 8 lakh. He said that more than 300 onions he had stocked to sell in his godown were stolen along with cash and a television set he kept in there. On the same day, another grower named Rahul Bajirao Pagar from Nashik in Maharashtra also reported a theft to the police, saying that 25 tons of onions worth Rs 1 lakh were lifted from his storeroom on Sunday, September 22. Police in these states are now investigating the respective cases and trying to identify the onion thieves. But most Indians will agree that paying such a high price for a kitchen staple is a crime in itself.

Heavy-duty downpours and irregular rains are to blame for the price rise, with farmers reporting that even the delayed onset of the monsoon season has cut down the supply of onions by nearly half of what it was last year. Other reports also point out that prices are unusually high in states like Maharashtra since people weren't consuming onions during the period of Shravan, which is when people cut out onions from their diets for religious reasons.

To curb the rise, the government has decided to release its buffer stock of 56,000 tons of onions, out of which 16,000 tons have already been offloaded until now. In Delhi, 200 tonnes a day are being offloaded, according to news agency PTI. While importing more onions from countries like Afghanistan, Egypt, China and even Pakistan was being considered, the last option was dropped after farmers protested against importing stock from Pakistan. They have also increased the Minimum Export Price (MEP) to restrict exports, and have assured people that prices will revert to normal soon. Still, it’s a sticky situation that will bring tears to your eyes even if you aren’t chopping onions.

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