Commodity Online
NEW DELHI: Following the Central government’s clamp-down on onion exports, shipments of the commodity came down by 72 per cent to over 30,000 tonnes in November compared with 1.08 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

After the onion prices soared to above Rs 20 level, the Centre had imposed a ban on exports and the government took measures to discourage overseas sales during festive season.

The fall in exports in terms of value is only about 53 per cent because of better realisation in the overseas markets.

Export of 30,714 tonnes in November is valued at Rs 52.04 crore as against Rs 110.72 crore when the country exported 1,08,170 tonnes in the year-ago period.

The price realisation went up to Rs 16,944 a tonne last month while the same was at Rs 10,236 a tonne in November 2006.

The total exports declined to 4.38 lakh tonnes during April-November period of the current financial year from 8.02 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

Nafed along with 12 other export channelising agencies did not revise the export price, which was at $495 a tonne, at the start of November to ensure availability of the commodity in the domestic market during Diwali.

However, they reduced the MEP on November 20 by $70 a tonne to an average MEP of $425 a tonne as domestic prices eased with the arrival of new crop.