Date:22/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/22/stories/2005102200591900.htm

Back `Bear with onion price rise'

Our Bureau

Pune , Oct. 21

WITH the prices of onions skyrocketing, Maharashtrians may have to change their diet.

The onion prices in Pune have touched Rs 24 a kg.

Mr Sharad Pawar, Union Minister for Agriculture, who was in the city, said: "people will have to bear with this price rise."

Asked whether import of onions would be a safer bet, he said that about 600 tonnes were being imported from Pakistan and "even if this entire import was taken to Mumbai, it would not even suffice a small colony in Mumbai."

He said that it is not economical to import onions as it would first have to be brought to Navi Mumbai and then distributed across. The landed cost would be more or same as what the consumers are currently paying for the commodity.