Chandigarh: With onion prices continuing to remain high, Punjab based traders have started importing it from Afghanistan through Attari-Wagah land route in Amritsar.
While 400 tonnes of onion came from Afghanistan yesterday, traders said about 2,000 more tonnes of the vegetable will come in from that country in the next 7-10 days.
“Considering the severe shortage of onion in the country which pushed up the prices quite high, we decided to import onion from Afghanistan.
“A consignment of 350-400 tonne of onion has already been imported and we expect 1,500-2,000 tonne of onion to flow into India from there through Attari-Wagah land route,” Amritsar Exports Chamber of Commerce, President, Rajdeep Uppal told PTI over phone.
As many as 10 traders from Punjab and Delhi imported onion from Kabul. traders said.
Earlier, Amritsar based traders had tried to import onion from neighbouring country Pakistan.
They had even asked their counterparts in Pakistan to seek permission for onion export to India through Attari-Wagah land route in a bid to enhance bulb's supply.
But that could not materialise, traders said.
The imported onion from Afghanistan would be sold in the markets of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and even Delhi, traders said.
“Though the crop imported from Afghanistan is not superior to our crop. But its supply will certainly bring down the onion prices in the markets,” said Uppal.
Retail prices of onion are ruling at Rs 70 per kg in Punjab and Chandigarh.
India last imported onions from Pakistan in January, 2011 when it faced massive shortage of supplies.
