ONION growers of Sindh complain that they have been put in an uncomfortable position by imports of onions through formal and informal channels of trade.
But these imports have not helped consumers get the commodity at affordable prices because of middlemen’s profits.
Farmers maintain that the province is self-sufficient in onion production. The farmers’ representative have emphasised at a recent meeting with the federal commerce secretary in Karachi that unless there is dire need of any commodity the same should not be imported.
They fear that they cannot compete with their Indian counterparts unless problems of the agriculture sector get serious attention of the government.
Sindh makes a handsome contribution to the country’s onion production as the crop is cultivated and harvested at different times of the year.
The crop is being marketed nowadays with fluctuating prices. According to some growers, an onion laden truck which carries 120 bags of onion of 110 kilogramme each was sold at the farm gate at Rs400,000 to Rs550,000 about a month ago. The price suddenly declined to Rs150,000 per vehicle. But market is showing some signs of stability now with prices varying between Rs300,000 to Rs280,000 per truck.
Rain caused some damages to the crop, affecting its size and per acre yield as well. Onion producers like Azam Rind of Nasarpur say that they are currently selling crop at Rs23.75 per kg.. “On an average, 60 bags of 110 kg each are produced in an acre and we load a truck with 120 bags”.
The trader, however, deducts two kgs towards weight of each gunny bag.
Akhund Ghulam Mohammad, another onion grower of Matiari district says retail price of onion on Oct 30 was Rs40 in Latifabad’s market whereas grower was getting Rs25 per kg at the farm gate.
“That’s why we have been urging the government for years to frame a trade policy in such a way that producers and consumers benefit alike. Currently, the middleman is making money as the government looks the other way”.
Onion is also grown along with sugarcane crop as part of dual cropping that saves cost of production to some extent. The growers who sow it as a single crop have to bear more expenses and they don’t get the real price of their produce.
Then the traders also buys on credit basis instead of making cash payments.
“Currently, the buyers from Punjab are striking deals in Nasarpur and Matiari which means that arrival of onion from across the border has apparently stopped; they [buyers] are not seen until recently”, says Rind.
Growers want that traders pay for the overall weight of onion. A gunny bag’s cost varies between Rs70 to Rs100 including cost of sewing. The bags are not returned by buyers, thus an onion producer loses around Rs10,000 to Rs12000 on each truck in the overall deal.
Farmers have been opposing import of vegetable and other commodities from India, arguing that agriculture sector there gets higher subsidies compared to farmers in Pakistan. The cost of production keeps increasing to make a huge difference in per acre yield.
According to Sindh Abadgar Board President Abdul Majeed Nizamani, who attended the meeting with the commerce secretary, the cost of producing onion per kilogramme is Rs18 as compared to Rs6 of Indian grower.