NAFED, the government agency that facilitates onion trade, said on Thursday that there was no bar on export of the edible bulb after traders went on strike protesting a reported ban on selling the commodity overseas.

“The export of onions is still on. However, concerned by the rising prices of onion... certain measures have been pressed into to check the ongoing spurt in the prices of onion,” National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) Managing Director Alok Ranjan said in a statement.

Onion prices were ruling at Rs 24-30 in retail markets in many parts of the country, including the national capital, due to demand exceeding supply.

The NAFED official said the agency was only going slow on issuing no objection certificates (NOCs) to exporters. To deter overseas sale of onion, NAFED had first increased the minimum export price by US$ 50 for all destinations.

“New NOCs will now be issued to exporters when they submit the utilisation report for NOCs issued to them earlier,” he said.

“We have issued a fresh NOC on Wednesday to an exporter,” NAFED’s Nashik Branch Manager Keshar Yadav said.

Meanwhile, the traders’ stir against the reported export ban entered the second day on Thursday. They boycotted purchase of onions at the Agriculture Produce Market Committee complex at Nashik. The ‘mandi’ will now reopen on Monday, Yadav said.

Nashik in North Maharashtra is one of the largest onion producing centres in the country.

Price to come down

The onion price should come down as new crop from Pune, Sangli and some parts of Karnataka will start arriving in the market shortly, Yadav said.

Industry estimates suggest that the onion crops this year from both Maharashtra and Karnataka are better than last year.