Retail rates are ranging between Rs 25 in lower middle class Jahangirpuri to Rs 30 in Laxmi Nagar, and even Rs 40 in Vasant Kunj. That's a 100% increase over the past month and about 300% over the past year.
The saving grace is that prices have not yet reached the levels of Great Onion Robbery Season 1, that is, December 2010 when onions sold for Rs 70 or more. But all the symptoms are there for an encore - central ministers are assuring that prices will come down after two weeks, Delhi CM is issuing strict orders for price control and wholesale traders are talking about bad weather in Nashik.
Delhi's Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee ( APMC) chairman Rajinder Kumar Sharma says that sowing was less this past August in the Nashik region.
"Combined with low rainfall, this has caused a dip in supply," he explains.
Most wholesale traders in Azadpur, Asia's largest fruit and vegetable market, toe this line. Puran Chand, who a trades tomato only and hence, has no axe to grind in the onion imbroglio, said that he had heard that the weather had caused losses in onion production.
But figures put out by the Nashik based National Horticultural Research & Development Foundation contradict this claim on dwindling supplies. Average daily onion arrivals in Delhi's wholesale markets were 1,123 metric tonnes in the fortnight when retail prices doubled. In the previous fortnight average daily arrivals were 1,260 metric tonnes. An average shortfall of just 140 tonnes, in a city where 3.9 lakh metric tonnes of onion was sold last year doesn't appear to be much. Yet prices doubled.
Sharma is eager to explain the "bitter truth" that "the politicians and media" are unwilling to reveal - the role of "greedy" retailers.
"The common subziwalla has to give bribes to the local police, the local corporation people, the local pradhan (head of community). He has to hire wooden planks and tables. He has huge overhead costs. And when he hears the TV screaming that onion prices have gone up, he adds another Rs 5 to his price," he explains.
Suleiman, a subziwala at Patparganj in east Delhi scoffs at this calculation. "I got onions at Rs 25 per kilogram from Shahdara mandi. I will have to sell at Rs 30 - otherwise what will my children eat?" he asks.
Wholesale prices have gone up too says Sharma, implying a reason for rise in retail prices. "The farmers also need to be paid a good price," he said.
But wholesale prices of onions in the capital went up from Rs14 per kg to Rs16 per kg between January 20 and February 4, touching a high of Rs 18.35 on January 31. In the same period, retail prices went up from about Rs 15 to Rs 30 or more. Clearly, a huge mark-up is taking place somewhere down the line.
Between January 20 and February 4 (leaving out Sundays), 1122956 kilograms of onions were purchased every day on an average by wholesalers at Rs 15.17 per kg. If all this was sold at the average prevalent rate of Rs 30, the profit made by traders would be Rs 1.7 crore.
That's not too bad for a fortnight's work. And, there are two weeks more to go.
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