Pakistani onions poor, claim Chandigarh wholesalers

CHANDIGARH - Chandigarh has refused to accept “poor quality” onions from Pakistan and wholesalers here Saturday said they will take supplies of the commodity - whose prices have been skyrocketing - from Rajasthan and Gujarat at competitive prices.

As many as 177 truckloads of onions reached Punjab from Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah border check-post Tuesday. Each truck carried around 10 tonnes of onions.

However, Chandigarh did not accept onions coming from Pakistan and sent them to other places Thursday.

“The Pakistani onions were of poor quality. They were wet and unripe. Therefore, we sent two trucks of onions to Himachal Pradesh,” said Balbir Singh, chairman of the Chandigarh wholesalers association.

“No truck will come from Pakistan on account of Christmas holiday and day after tomorrow is Sunday. So we can expect another consignment of onions only on Monday,” Punjab-based importer Rajdeep Uppal told IANS.

“This two-day gap in the supply of onions can again escalate the prices of onions. In fact, onions prices have also gone up in the Pakistani markets as they also have limited stocks,” he said.

Most onions coming to India are from Pakistan’s Sindh province.

Balbir Singh said: “We are expecting more onions to arrive here from Rajasthan and Gujarat over the next couple of days. Our talks are on with the traders there. We are getting very good quality onions at very competitive prices from there.”

Around 40 tonnes of onions reached Chandigarh Wednesday.

In some parts of India, the retail prices of onions touched Rs.100 a kg earlier in the week. Following this, Indian traders bought onions from Pakistan at Rs.300-350 a quintal.