The onion traders of Nashik have called off their 13-day strike, which began on September 20. Barring the Vinchur Mandi, no onion auction took place at any of the onion markets in Nashik. Asia's biggest mandis, Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon, were also out of business for the last 13 days.

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Nashik onion traders went on a strike on September 20 against the government's decision to impose 40 percent export duty on onions to keep the prices in check. The traders were also demanding that the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation Of India Limited (NCCF) don't release their stock in the retail market at a lower price when there is no price or availability crisis as it would hurt their profits.

After multiple rounds of talks with Central and the state governments, the traders have called off the strike. "Auction at the Niphad mandi resumed on Monday," the Niphad market committee told CNBC-TV18. Lasalgaon market committee told CNBC-TV18 that from Tuesday, October 3, onwards the auction will resume at Lasalgaon mandi and other mandis as well.

Though the strike didn't really affect the supply chain or affect the traders and consumers financially, it impacted the onion farmers who are already facing huge losses because of the unseasonal rains and hailstorm.

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Bharat Dighole, President, Maharashtra Onion farmers association said that for the farmers, the damage is already done. "Traders didn't really suffer financial losses. They had ample onion stock which they kept selling. But, once again the farmers were at the receiving end of this strike. Thanks to the unseasonal rains and hailstorm, the quality of the bulb has deteriorated and the shelf life has reduced. Whatever the farmers could stock was rotting. For 13 days farmers didn't have avenues to sell their onions. This led to further rotting of their stock which meant further losses for them," he said.

In August, the wholesale onion prices reached Rs 22-24/kg. Keeping various reports that forecast a drastic price rise, the government imposed a 40 percent export duty on onions on August 19. It also released onions in the retail market at a lower price in August.

These steps brought down the onion prices before any drastic uptick in the prices. This left the onion farmers agitated as they claimed that this was an opportunity for them to make some profit and the govt took it away even when the prices weren't pinching the consumers. The farmers accused the government of keeping the coddling the consumers at their cost. Before the strike, the onion prices had dropped to Rs 16/kg. This strike has made a further dent in the onion farmers' income.

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First Published:Oct 3, 2023 7:12 AM IST