Mumbai: The ban on export of onions have infuriated onion farmers, who had just started getting better prices for their produce which was washed away or spoilt in the heavy monsoons in the Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The repercussions of the central government’s decision to ban onion exports are being felt across the country. Many leaders had lodged complaints with Sharad Pawar in this regard.
NCP President Sharad Pawar immediately discussed the issue with Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. “Such a sudden decision could tarnish India’s image as an exporter,” he said.
“The ban jeopardizes India’s export share in the onion markets of Gulf countries, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Mr Pawar said in a tweet, adding that it could allow other countries, such as Pakistan, to displace India.
The central government’s Department of Commerce on Monday banned “with immediate effect” export of onions as its average trade price in the country’s biggest onion market in Maharashtra’s Lasalgaon touched Rs 30/kg – double of what it was in March.
“The ban on onion exports has been proposed by the Union Ministry of Consumer Protection on the basis of rising onion prices in the market,” Goyal told Pawar. However, we will reconsider the ban in consultation with the Union Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Consumer Protection, assured Piyush Goyal.
https://twitter.com/PawarSpeaks/status/1305781105660887041?s=19
Meanwhile, in protest of the ban on onion exports, farmers in Umrana, Satana, Nagpur and other Nashik district closed down agricultural produce market committees and blocked the road.
Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana tried to visit the district collector to protest the government’s onion export ban policy.
‘So, by banning onion exports, the central government has betrayed the farmers. We have to go on streets to protest, warned the General Secretary of Kisan Sabha’, Dr Ajit Navale.