India suspends onion exports

With the prices of onion nearly doubling in the past few days, the Indian government on Monday decided to stop issuing fresh permits for exporting onion till Jan. 15.

Onion, which used to sell at Rs 35-40 per kg a few days ago, now goes for Rs 60-70 per kg.

India’s annual food inflation climbed to 9.46 percent in the week ended Dec. 4 compared with 8.69 percent in the previous week.

Apart from suspension of issuing new no-objection certificates to exporters, the minimum export price (MEP) of onion was also raised from USD 525 per tonne to USD 1,200 after a meeting of the Price Fixation Advisory Committee (PFAC) on Monday.

This is expected to make it almost impossible for exporters to continue shipping out onion.