ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: Poor quality onion from Afghanistan and Iran is being re-exported to various destinations under Pakistani label. It is damaging country’s image, and may cause it to lose more international markets, sources told Dawn on Friday.

With an almost 15 per cent decline in domestic onion production this season and a growing demand for Pakistani onion in Sri Lanka, Dubai and Muscat, local exporters are finding it hard to plug the gap between supply and demand, and desist the temptation of quick profits by compromising on quality.

Now, a number of them have resorted to re-exporting onions from the neighbouring countries which are of low quality.

The domestic growers are fearing a ban on Pakistani onion by quality conscious countries soon, sources in the federal food ministry said.

Pakistan has already lost lucrative Russian market for its kinno and rice due to reckless attitude of a few exporters who shipped low quality stuff to earn quick and unjustified profits.

The All-Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association has already informed the government about the matter, but it seemed that no action was taken to discourage the export in its initial stages, an official at the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) said.

He said it was not known as to how much of the neighbouring countries’ onion made its way to foreign markets, but quantity could be substantial keeping in view the huge gap between supply and demand.

He said that the exporters association had demanded a complete ban on export of onion till the end of November and an investigation into the matter.

“The exporters fear a ban on Pakistani kinno as complaints about low quality Iranian and Afghani re-exported onion are growing and Pakistan is going to pay the price for it soon,” another Minfal official said, asking not to be named.

The exporters who had shipped low quality onion abroad were not getting any further orders for supply as well, which meant that response was negative from consumers, he added.

Mostly such a negative response from consumers was followed by actions by the government concerned, he said.

The floods in Balochistan had devastated onion harvest this season, creating a supply gap that pushed up onion prices to Rs700 per 40 kg from Rs200 per 40 kg in bulk, Rs18 kg in wholesale and Rs20-Rs25 per kg in retail.

In Islamabad, onions are now being sold at Rs30 per kg in the local markets.

Pakistan had set 2.1 million tons as onion production target and estimated a 126,300 hectares area for cultivation during 2006-07 season, but torrential rains and resultant standing water in fields made the country to face almost a 15 per cent decline in output.