The traders said that prices of onion have increased as imports from Afghanistan have stopped.
Rajendra Sharma, Chairman of Onion Merchant Association and a trader from Azadpur Mandi, said: "Wholesale price of onion was recorded at Rs 95 per kg which is the highest this season."
According to Sharma, it is being said that prices have inflated as Pakistan has banned routing of onion from Afghanistan through its land. However, a custom officer from Amritsar said that onion from Afghanistan has reached the market via Pakistan on Monday also.
Last week, onion prices in Delhi as well as whole of north India came down due to increase in imports of onion from Afghanistan. Earlier in December, the retail price of onion was recorded at Rs 80-150 per kg whereas last week it was recorded at Rs 70-90 per kg. On Monday it went up to Rs 70-125 per kg.
Traders said that inflow of onion from the domestic market was affected due to rains in the last three days. The inflow of onion from the international market in the Azadpur APMC on Monday was 58.6 tonnes whereas last week the inflow was around 300 tonnes.
It is also being said that the first lot of onion imported by the government has reached the Mumbai port. A few days back, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan, had said that the first lot of imported onions from Egypt will reach India by December 15.
The government decided to import 1.2 lakh tonnes of onion to control the inflating price of the vegetable.
The Consumer Affairs Ministry had said that till now, 30,000 tonnes of onion have already been imported and three tenders have already been given to MMTC to import 15,000 tonnes of onion.
( With inputs from IANS )