Yesterday, India imposed a minimum export price of $800 per ton for onions, much higher than the prices at which importers were buying. The export price will remain effective until December 31 this year, said a notification issued by India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade. The move is apparently to discourage exports and contain the price in the Indian market.
Importers were quoting $150-$205 per ton of Indian onions before the minimum export price was imposed, said Dipankar Ghosh, Organising Secretary of the Clearing and Forwarding Agents Association in Bhomra, a land port in the southwest region bordering India. Import price will increase by over four times, and landing price of the bulbs will be over Tk 100 a kg at the port, he said.
The curb on export by the Indian authority comes two and a half months after it slapped 40 percent duty on the export of onions to tame escalating prices in its domestic market. The move is likely to fuel a price hike of onions in Bangladesh, which meets a portion of its demand through imports from mostly India.