States governments have given the Centre a short shrift, lifting only 2,501 tonnes of the 33,000 tonnes onions they had placed import orders for when the price of the bulb shot through the roof in October-November last year.
As onion prices started rising due to low arrivals in wholesale markets due to damage to crops on account of unseasonal rains, state governments sent in requests to the Centre to import the kitchen staple to rein in prices.
According to the Consumer Affairs Ministry estimates, 18 states had put forth a cumulative demand of 33,139 tonnes of onions, prompting the Centre to ask MMTC to import onions and orders to the tune of 41,950 tonnes were placed.
Of the total contracted onions, imports to the tune of 36,124 tonnes materialised with consignments landing mostly at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust near Mumbai.
As the imported onions started arriving at the ports, the Centre asked the state governments to lift the consignments either from the port itself or have it delivered at the state headquarters.
“However, as on 03.02.2020, only about 2501 MT imported onion, in total, were taken by States/UTs that include Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Telengana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Meghalaya and Jammu & Kashmir,” Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Raosaheb Danve told Parliament.
In a bid to sweeten the deal for the states, Centre had offered to pick up the tab for transportation of onions to the respective states if they decide to honour their demands.
Assam had refused to honour its demand of 10,000 tonnes of onions, followed by Maharashtra (3480 tonnes), Haryana (2500 tonnes), Karnataka (250 tonnes) and Odisha (100 tonnes).
Finally, the government had to ask MMTC and NAFED to dispose of the imported onions at prevailing market rates through markets and retail to avoid wastage.