Ban not lifted, Pak traders to sell 3,000 MT onions

With the ban through the land route still on, Pakistan traders will dispose of around 300 onion-laden trucks contracted for India, before the restriction was imposed, into their local markets, traders said on Tuesday.

"Pakistan-based vegetable exporters will sell onion, which was contracted before the ban was imposed, in local market, as it (onions) is a perishable commodity and they can't hold it for long," the Amritsar-based vegetable trader Anil Mehra said.

Vegetable traders further pointed out with Pakistan remaining rigid on not lifting ban despite requests made by Pakistani traders, all the orders for the import of onion now stand cancelled.

"The contracted orders for the supply of onion are now cancelled, as there is a little hope that Pakistan lifts ban on exports via land route," said another importer Mukesh Sindhwani, whose 150 metric tonnes of onion could not reach Amritsar after the ban.

The Pakistan government had not yet taken any decision on the request made by their vegetable traders demanding lifting of ban on onion export, they said.

The neighbouring country had announced the imposition of ban on onion export to India via land route on January 5 to prevent any spiraling hike in bulb prices in its domestic market and no truck carrying onion had crossed over to India since January 6.

A sudden ban imposed on export of onion had hit the traders of both the countries with almost 300 trucks containing 3,000 metric tonne of bulb getting stuck following the implementation of ban.

Notably, the Centre had also sought from Pakistan government to atleast supply the contracted orders through land route, but remained unsuccessful.

India started importing onion in December last year for the first time from Pakistan after facing soaring prices of the bulb.

About 7,000 MT of onion had arrived since the commencement of onion export to India from Pakistan via Attari -Wagah land route.

Meanwhile, Amritsar-based traders had expressed anguish over the survey operations conducted by Income Tax department on Monday over onion importers to detect hoarding and illegal profiteering.

"We are being harassed by the Income Tax Department unnecessarily. . . We are not hoarders as we do not build vegetables stock as we dispose them of to our customers as and when we get the supply," said a trader requesting anonymity.

Income Tax department had carried out surveys on two vegetable traders in Amritsar as parts of its country-wide campaign to check commodity hoarding in the wake of soaring onion prices.