The onion prices have registered a sharp increase in the last week hence the Centre on Wednesday decided to rope in Safal, the fresh fruit and vegetable retailing arm of Mother Dairy, to sell it at reasonable prices in the capital, an official statement said.
Department of Consumer Affairs Secretary, Avinash K Srivastava chaired a high-level meeting and asked Safal to sell the bulbous vegetable at Rs. 23.90 a kg, the rate at which the Mother Dairy arm sold onions on Wednesday.
Many senior officials of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) attended the meeting including National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) and Safal. It also asked Safal to double the number of onions through retail. Onions are currently available in Safal through a stock built under Price Stabilisation Fund.
Further, onions from the government buffer stock will be offered to large retailers for sale at reasonable prices. Prices will be monitored regularly by the department for appropriate intervention, the statement said. NAFED and NCCF were also directed to retail onions at prices comparable to that of Safal through their outlets and mobile vans.
The meeting was also informed that the government would consider taking strict action for engaging in hoarding and profiteering and evaluate the need for imposing a minimum export price on onion if the situation warrants.
