Pakistan Onion Ban Fuels Inflation

Expect more tears from onion prices shooting up again as arrivals through the Wagah border were halted on Wednesday by Pakistan without notice citing the prices hooting up in local markets since exports to India began December 19, with 400 to 500 tonnes arriving daily by road.

Indo- Pak Exporters Association chairman Om Prakash Arora said in Amritsar that 300 trucks carrying onions were stopped at the Wagah checkpost with a strange order issued by Pakistan Commerce Ministry deputy secretary Muhammad Maqsood Khan on January 4 that “ onion exports allowed except through land route via Wagah to India.” “ We can still import by the goods train plying between India and Pakistan as also by the sea route, but it increases the transportation cost and as such the ban on imports by the road route is clearly an attempt to put the Indian Government into difficulty,” Arora said, wondering what happens to the purchases contracted by the Indian public sector units as last to arrive through Wagah on Wednesday were the last 78 trucks.

The private traders have approached the Commerce Ministry here to persuade Islamabad to allow at least the onions for which they have already completed the documentation work and payments made. They said the Pakistan authorities have even recalled the onion- laden trucks from No Man’s land and those stopped at the checkpost may start rotting unless they are allowed to enter India.

Though the wholesale prices of onions in the Punjab markets dropped from Rs 40 to Rs 20- 20 a kilo after the imports from Pakistan began, there is not much impact on the retail prices as the quality of the imported onions is inferior. A report from Lahore said the Pakistani exporters who had contracted supplies to India are a worried lot as they may suffer heavy loss in the sudden stoppage of the exports as they had bought onions at high prices and may not be able to sell them even in the domestic markets as prices dipped within a day by 45 per cent. They feared to lose millions of rupees due to the Pakistan government’s decision and truckloads of onions already at Wagah could go waste. On Thursday, they organised protests against the government’s decision at markets in Gujranwala and Lahore, pleading to at least allow 300 truckloads stopped on the border.