Pawar blames unseasonal rains for onion price spike

Washing his hands off the ongoing crisis of onion price rocketing to the north, Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar said today that unseasonal rains have triggered the onion shortage and made it clear that it comes under the purview of Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs.

“People making such statements must be have ground knowledge. This does not concern my ministry. Problem of onion shortage is due to the late arrival of the crop,” Pawar told CNN-IBN’s Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai in an exclusive interview.

“There was heavy monsoon in July which affected the onion crops. In August, there was shortfall of rains. Onion is a kharif crop. It was damaged by unseasonal rainfall. Export of onions is lowest in three years,” the Union minister said.

He said that high price of onions is only limited to some metroes like Mumbai and Delhi and in some other cities.

“I am sure prices of onions will come down in first week of November because the area under onions is much more than last year,” Pawar said.

Rejecting a claim by the opposition that the Nationalist Congress Party is involved in cartelisation of onions, he said, “Allegations of cartelisation of onions by NCP is illogical and wrong.”

However, Pawar admitted that some unscrupulous traders made profit due to the crisis.

“There is no doubt that some dishonest traders made windfall profits due to the crisis,” the Union minister said.

Stating that checking onion prices is sole responsibilty of the state government, Pawar expressed confidence that high food price won’t be an electoral issue.

“Government of India does not deal with marketing of onions. I don’t think food inflation is going to harm our government,” he said.