Commodity Online
NEW DELHI: Onion exports from India are likely to have surpassed by about 70 percent in the last month, despite the hike in the minimum export price (MEP), said National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED).

The exports are expected to rise above 1.12 million tonnes in this fiscal against 534762 tonnes in the last year, said a senior official. If the shipment continues at this rate, it might even reach 1.5 million tonnes, he added.

Explaining the reason behind the major surge in exports this fiscal, the official said the stock level of onions remained higher by almost 500000 tonnes at about 2.6 million tonnes. Besides low MEP for most part of this year helped boost exports, he added.

NAFED, which decide the MEP for every month has hiked it by 50 dollar per tonne in mid November in order to boost domestic supply. Onion exports are channelised through cooperative major NAFED, in consultation with 12 other state trading agencies
.