30,000 tonnes of Indian onions are rotting at the Bangladesh border, traders are worried

Onion exports from India to Bangladesh were going on at normal levels. But to protect the interests of domestic farmers, the Bangladesh government has suddenly stopped onion imports from India. And this is why Indian onion exporters are facing extreme losses. They say that they had stockpiled onions in the border area for export to Bangladesh on the verbal assurance of Bangladeshi importers.
At least 30,000 tonnes of onions were stockpiled at the Indian borders of Ghojadanga, Petrapole, Mahadipur and Hili, albeit in small quantities. Onions worth crores of rupees have now started rotting. Forced to reduce losses, Indian exporters are selling these onions at low prices in the local market.
Today, Sunday (November 30), the price of one kg of onion was seen at just 2 taka at the Mahadipur Sonamasjid border in Malda district of West Bengal. The price of a 50 kg bag is only 100 taka. For the past few days, exporters have been selling onions purchased from Nashik at Rs 16 per kg, including freight, for Rs 22. In the retail market of Malda, the price of onions is Rs 20-22 per kg. If you go to Mahadipur, just 7 km from the English Bazaar town, you can get onions for Rs 2 per kg.
Exporters say this is the reason for the sudden stoppage of exports to Bangladesh. In normal times, 30-35 trucks of onions used to go to Bangladesh through Mahadipur every day. With that hope, Indian traders had stockpiled about twenty thousand metric tonnes of onions in this border area alone. The price per kg was about Rs 22. If onions were exported to Bangladesh, they would have received Rs 30-32 per kg. The profit per kg would have been Rs 8-10. Some have lost Rs 6 million or crore! The same picture is seen at the Hili, Petrapole and Ghojadanga borders.
Traders say that on November 16, the Bangladesh Import-Export Group said in a statement that the Department of Agricultural Extension has been controlling the import permits (IP) of Indian onions for some time. First, some importers were given 50 tons of IP and later some importers 30 tons of IP. In the interest of domestic farmers, the Bangladesh government suddenly stopped the entire onion import process.
Trader Sajirul Sheikh said, some of us bought 50 cars and about 70 cars of onions from Nashik and Indore and kept them in our godown in Malda. The onions were brought in big lorries. At Tk 22 per kg, a ton of onions costs Tk 2,200. But now those onions have started rotting. So we are forced to sell them at Tk 2, 6, 8, 10 per kg. Very good quality onions cost Tk 10, slightly low quality onions Tk 6, and we are selling grade 3 onions, which will rot very quickly, at Tk 2 per kg.
Another trader, Zakirul Islam, said, “I brought about 1,500 tonnes of onions from Bengaluru at a price of Tk 23 per kg. The cost of local labour was about Tk 1. The total cost was Tk 24. When exports were normal, I also exported 30-35 cars of onions two months ago. But since the exports stopped, our stock has started rotting. So, without delay, I started arranging the onions and selling them in the local market at the price I got. Now let’s see how Indian traders make up for the loss in their onion business. However, when new onions come to the market again in the next two months, Indian traders will face a massive collapse in their onion business.”