NEW DELHI: After tomatoes and other agro commodity prices surged to record highs, burning a hole in the pockets of consumers over the past few months, the government has stepped in to ensure prices in onion remain under check till the new crop arrives from October onward, as it announced on Friday that it will release onion from its buffer stock in the targeted regions with immediate effect.

The government has currently maintained 3 lakh tonnes of onion under the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) to meet any exigencies, if rates go up significantly during the lean supply season and it was exploring multiple options for disposal of onion, via e-auction, e-commerce as well as through states at discounted rates via retail outlets of their consumer cooperatives and corporations.

As per the government data, onion prices have started inching up slightly as the all-India retail price of the key kitchen staple was available at Rs 27.90 per kilogramme on August 10, higher by a little over Rs 2 per kg in the year-ago period.

According to Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, while it confirmed that onions would be released from the buffer stock immediately, he said that the modalities for the disposal of onion has been finalised after discussions with the officials of cooperative NAFED and National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Limited (NCCF) on Thursday. NAFED and NCCF procured 1.50 lakh tonnes each of rabi onion during June and July from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

The ministry, also said in a statement that it will release the onion stocks by targeting key markets in states or regions where retail prices are ruling above the all-India average and also where the increase in prices over the previous month and year are above the threshold level.

In the current year, a total of three lakh metric tonnes of onion has been procured for the buffer, which could be enhanced further, if the situation demands, the statement added further saying that onion buffer size has been tripled in the past four years; from one lakh tonnes in 2020-21 to three lakh metric tonnes in 2023-24.

This year, irradiation of onion had also been taken up on a pilot basis in collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) with the objective of minimizing storage loss. About 1,000 tonnes had been irradiated and stored in controlled atmosphere storage.