Hundreds of onion trucks are stuck at the border

The sudden halt to Indian onion exports without prior announcement has led to instability in the country’s onion market, on the one hand, and hundreds of trucks loaded with imported onions by traders on the Indian border, on the other. If you can’t get rid of these onions very quickly, they will rot.

No onions have entered the country through Hili de Dinajpur land port, Jessore Benapole land port, Satkhira Bhomra land port and Darshana international rail port since last Monday. But onions imported by Bangladeshi traders are trapped in the Indian part of these borders. Traders said the onions imported through LC were purchased before the export was stopped. But now India does not send these onions to Bangladesh under the pretext of stopping exports.

Hakimpur (Dinajpur) correspondent Zahidul Islam said that even though Indian traders promised to re-export, trucks loaded with onions caught at the border did not enter Bangladesh through the Healy land port until Wednesday. As a result, onion traders are suffering financially.

Last Monday, when India stopped exporting onions due to the crisis in its domestic market, Indian trucks loaded with at least 250 to 300 onions were stuck waiting to enter Bangladesh only at the Indian part of the Hili land port in Dinajpur. More than 300 trucks are stranded on the Benapole border. The situation is almost the same in other ports.

Haroon Ur Rashid, Chairman of Healy Land Port Import and Export Group, quoted Indian businessmen as saying that a tender was issued last Sunday for the export of 200 metric tons of onions to Bangladesh. Hopefully, the Indian government will allow the onion to be exported to Bangladesh. Otherwise, traders will face losses.

In this regard, Trade Minister Tipu Munshi told reporters at a press conference in the Secretariat on Wednesday that he had spoken with the High Commissioner of India. He said the problem would be solved in a day or two for those caught at the border.

The Minister of Commerce recommended not to buy more onions than required

Instability in the country’s onion market has not abated as India has halted onion exports. Most buyers are buying large quantities of onions for fear of further price increases. Even yesterday, domestic onions were selling for Tk 100-120 and imported onions for Tk 60-65 on the capital market.

Meanwhile, the Trade Minister said that the country has adequate stocks of onions and recommended that buyers not buy more onions than they need. At a press conference on the stock, supply and price situation of onions in the conference room of the Ministry of Commerce in the Secretariat yesterday, Tipu Munshi said: “We thought that India would increase the price of onions, but we did not stop to export”. But suddenly it stopped. As a result, we are under a lot of pressure. When asked if there was any policy on onions, the trade minister said: “I am the trade minister, I understand trade.” I can’t answer if there is any politics behind this. ‘

The Trade Minister said: “At present, the country has around 6 lakh of metric tons of onions in stock. Also, onions are being imported from different countries at the governmental and private level. Huge quantities of onions are being imported through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). Therefore, do not buy additional onions as needed. He urged everyone to be economical in using onions. He said the onions were being imported from Turkey and Egypt through TCB and would be arriving in the country in no time. These were purchased through international tenders before India stopped exporting onions.

Noting that TCB has taken a plan to build a large stock of onions this time around, he said that TCB has taken the initiative to sell onions through e-commerce. TCB will sell onions until March next year, he said.

Tipu Munshi said the government has taken all possible measures to keep the stocks, supply and prices of onions normal. The district administration together with the National Department of Consumer Rights Protection has intensified the monitoring of the market. He said that the necessary steps have been taken urgently through diplomatic channels with the Government of India to lift the ban on onion exports. Hopefully the situation will return to normal in a month.

Kolkata’s Tariq Hasan said 300 trucks carrying onions were stuck at the Benapole border after the decision to stop exports to India. Each truck has 20 to 30 tons of onions. In total, 6 to 7 thousand tons are stuck. With the special approval of the Government of India, this huge quantity of onions will be able to enter Bangladesh.

According to the Bangladesh Mission in Calcutta, a request has been made to the Government of India to allow this huge quantity of onions to reach Bangladesh. With the approval of the Director General of Foreign Trade of India, onion trucks can go to Bangladesh. These 300 onion trucks will take at least two days to enter Bangladesh. However, permission was not obtained until Wednesday night.

For a long time, onions were sold on the Indian market at Rs 25-30 per kg. Suddenly, prices began to rise. On the open market, the price reaches Rs 40 per kg. Meanwhile, wholesale prices in Maharashtra, India’s main onion-producing state, started to rise. Realizing the situation, a class of merchants began to store onions. According to a Calcutta wholesaler, the price of onion has started to rise due to a class of unscrupulous traders. Hence the decision to stop exports. Meanwhile, there were no changes in the onion price in the West Bengal markets, even after the suspension of exports.

Ittefaq / BAF