KARACHI: After the arrival of full crop of onion from Sindh in the domestic market and some reduction in the prices, exporters have announced resumption of export of onion. On November 3, 2020, exporters with the support of All Pakistan Fruit & Vegetable Exporters, Importers & Merchants Association (PFVA) imposed a ban on export of this vegetable by themselves due to its shortage in the domestic market.

According to Waheed Ahmed, former chairman PFVA after "self ban" on export of onion, desired results have been achieved and with the arrival of a good onion crop of Sindh in the market, the price of onion which stood at Rs.2,800 per maund has now dropped to Rs.1,200 to 1,300 per maund.

The PFVA held a meeting with onion exporters on 20th Nov 2020 and after reviewing the situation decided to resume the export of onion with effect from Nov 27, 2020 and this decision was also intimated to the Department of Plant Protection.

Waheed said now the matured and fully ready onion crops would be available due to temporary discontinuation of export of onion, while the growers will also be fully benefited.

"The timely initiative and good planning of PFVA the price of onion will be remain stable in the local market and bad trend of stocking and black marketing would also be eliminated, while the farmers will get good price of onion which will motivate them to harvest in the next season otherwise traditionally, if the growers sustain financial losses in one crop during a year they do not harvest same crop next year," he added.

Pakistan has a window of opportunity to export onion in the international market for an additional month, during which exporters taking advantage of surplus volume of onion would export and generate valuable foreign exchange for the country. After one month, the Indian onion would also be available in the International market and thus opportunities to export Pakistani onion would be limited.

Waheed has s also appealed the Federal Ministry of National food security and Federal Ministry of Commerce that keep the interest of Pakistani growers in view, the import of onion and potato from Iran should be banned.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020