By Muhammad Luqman
Muhammad Ibrahim, an onion cultivator from Mastung district of South-Western Pakistan province of Balochistan is very confident of getting due price of his crop this year as the prices of the commodity are still in uppish mood in Lahore and other big cities of Pakistan.
“ I have brought ten truck loads of onion from Mastung. Though prices of the onion have declined over the last two days. But these are still lucrative for growers from Balochistan,” says Ibrahim.
Balochistan is expected to produce about one million tons of onion during the current season , not enough to meet the 2.5 million ton demand of 210 million population of Pakistan. Like other South Asian nations, onion is an essential ingredient of all the culinary preparations.
Prices of onion experienced a phenomenal rise to the level of Rs 120( US $ 1.2) per kilogram in Lahore and even Rs 150 (US $ 1.5) in port city of Karachi during the Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Azha and did not come down even two weeks after the event.
It was only the arrival of newly harvested onion crop from Balochistan and imports from Afghanistan , Egypt and even from Iran, that have helped bring down the prices to Rs 70 per kiliogram in Lahore and other cities of Punjab province and Rs 80 in Karachi. But these are still above normal.
This time, Pakistan has not made any import of onion in big volume from India due to ever-souring relations with the eastern neighbor due to skirmishes over Line of Control in disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
“ There have been some imports of Indian onion through Cross LoC trade. But not a single truck has arrived through Wagha,” says Haji Muhammad Bilal, Secretary General of Vegetable traders association.
To him, situation will soon improve as the arrivals from Balochistan will improve in the coming weeks.
Onion is produced across Pakistan; however, the time windows for harvesting differ. Sindh crop starts in November and continues till March, whereas in Punjab it lasts for two months i.e. April and May. Onion is available in the markets of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from May to July, while Balochistan, being the second largest onion producer after Sindh, cultivates it from July through October.
Pakistan’s total annual consumption of onion is around 2.5 million tons . It produced 3.2 million ton last year. However, this year, the production is expected much below due to unfavorable weather conditions. Countries like India, China, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Turkey are also major onion producers.
