Retail onion prices in the capital have declined by about 20 per cent to Rs 60-65 per kg over the past two weeks.
Onion arrivals in Delhi and in the major markets of Maharashtra, the biggest producer of onions, have been going up in last few days.
In Delhi, the average arrival price for wholesale onion dipped from Rs 5,555 per quintal on September 17 to Rs 3,639 on September 30, a drop of over 34 per cent. The declining trend at the wholesale level is expected to reflect at the retail level with a further drop in prices this month, said a wholesaler at Delhi's Azadpur market.
The harvest of the onion kharif crop has been good in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In October, arrivals will pick up in Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The two states account for one-third of country's output. October's nine day long Navratri celebrations - when people avoid eating onions - are also likely to lead to a drop in consumption and prices. With a 244 per cent rise in prices in August, onions were instrumental in driving up the August wholesale price inflation to a six month high of 6.1 per cent.India produces about 16 million tonnes of onion but consumes only 10-11 million tonnes. Higher domestic prices had led to a resumption in imports of onion after a gap of two years and onions from countries like Egypt, China and Pakistan have found a market in India.
Remunerative domestic prices and the imposition of a higher minimum export price have slowed onion exports. In August, onion exports fell sharply to 29,247 tonnes compared to 156,165 tonnes in July and 150,512 tonnes in June. India exported 1.82 million tonnes of onion in 2012/13, valued at Rs 2,295 crore. In the first five months of current fiscal year, exports have only been 697,028 tonnes.