The Indian government has instructed the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) to sell onions from its buffer stock through the e-NAM platform, as reported by the Times of India. This move is aimed at saving costs incurred in selling onions at reduced rates for market intervention.

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By transitioning to e-auctioning, the government aims to achieve better price realisation by eliminating human interference and biased decisions. This practice is seen as an improvement over the previous method of physically transporting the stock to destination mandis and then conducting sales, with the sale price determined post transportation.

The decision to e-auction onions comes amidst the closure of mandis in Maharashtra's Nasik. NAFED and NCCF have approximately 3 lakh tonnes (MT) of onion buffer stock, which is being released to stabilize prices. On September 21, onion traders suspended auctions in all agricultural produce market committees in Nashik district, protesting the Union government's recent move to increase export duty on onions by up to 40 percent, effective until December 31.

This increase in export duty raised concerns of a shortage of this kitchen staple in retail markets and a subsequent rise in prices. Responding to this, Maharashtra's state marketing minister, Abdul Sattar, stated that the state has advised traders to procure onions directly from farmers, and agencies like NAFED will also commence purchasing onions.

(Edited by : Akanksha Upadhyay)