Thaindian News

Amritsar, Dec 24 (IANS) Indian importers are expecting at least 50 truckloads of onion to reach here through the Attari-Wagah border check-post Friday, a day after seeing a decline in the import of the now precious commodity from Pakistan.”Yesterday (Thursday) only 34 trucks, carrying 340 tonnes of onions, had arrived in India. This was comparatively less than Wednesday when 60 trucks had reached here,” Amritsar-based importer Mahinder Singh told IANS.

“Today (Friday), we are expecting at least 50 truckloads of onions from Pakistan,” he added.

“There are few factors that led to this decline in import of onions from Pakistan. There was dense fog in Pakistan Thursday morning that disrupted the road traffic. Pakistan is also getting orders from Gulf countries, so prices have also gone up in their market,” Singh added.

So far, 132 trucks loaded with onions have reached India since Tuesday to check spiralling onion prices in the country. Each truck carried around 10 tonnes of onions.

With onion prices touching Rs.100 a kg in some parts of the country earlier in the week, Indian traders are buying it from Pakistan at Rs.300-350 a quintal.

Said another importer, Rajdeep Uppal: “We are getting onions at Rs.300-350 a quintal and supplying them equally in the mandis (vegetable markets) of Punjab and New Delhi.”

Most of the onions coming to India are from Pakistan’s Sindh province. However, traders say the quality of the Pakistani onion is not as good as the onion produced in India.

In Punjab’s capital Chandigarh, around 40 tonnes onions reached from Rajasthan and Gujarat Thursday evening.