Let me be giving the disclaimer first in this blog: “I have never liked Onions in my life.” I had a strong dislike for them since the time I saw my mother with tears in her eyes while cutting onions. I also started crying on seeing tears in her eyes. Though she tried to explain to me that Onions are causing the same and there is nothing due to which she has tears in her eyes. But till date I don’t eat raw onions in salad. I have no control over the onions added to food during cooking, but if my food is cooked without onions I am perfectly ok with the same.
"Ever wondered why we do not have a cabbage problem or a carrot problem or a spinach problem?" Because my friend they are highly perishable. So every body in the supply chain wants to get rid of them ASAP. But onions my friend are different, they would happily survive for weeks without any kind of refrigeration and can be easily stored to be used at a later day. Herein lies the mystery of high onion prices every few years.
Now if our housewives are storing so much onion in anticipation of the price increase just imagine how much onion our wholesalers, retailers and cold storage owners would be storing. So in my opinion there is no shortage of onions, only every body in the supply chain is storing more than they actually need leading to artificial shortage and a spike in demand.
And I am sure we all remember the first lesson of supply and demand.
More demand = Higher prices.
Since every body wants to buy more than they need the prices start shooting up.
And when 100+ Crore people want to buy onions to store the price automatically increase many folds.
This equation is true for every thing-- from onions to uranium.
So I am proposing 2 simple solutions:
Stop hoarding onions at the household levels, buy only if you must. There is no shortage of onions only the prices are high. So if all of us suddenly decide not to buy for storage but for consumption only prices will automatically come down.
Stop eating onions. Millions of Jains in this country do not eat onions, yet they are healthy, wealthy and wise.
As more and more people stop eating or buying Onions all the onions being hoarded will be coming to market and the prices will drop like a rocket out of fuel.
Stop eating onions. Millions of Jains in this country do not eat onions, yet they are healthy, wealthy and wise.
As more and more people stop eating or buying Onions all the onions being hoarded will be coming to market and the prices will drop like a rocket out of fuel.
Don’t believe me? For a change instead of forwarding the same junk email to all the people in your address book for a change forward this blog with an appeal to stop buying onions and see the prices of onions in next 21 days.
Remember onions are ultimately perishable commodities and nobody can afford to store them forever. So the moment we stop buying prices will start falling.
This article written by me has appeared in Dare online magazine.
Thanks for reading, do leave a comment.
very good thoughts if we little cut the usage of onions automatically the price will go down and the problem of shortage of onion will be solved.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Sasha
ReplyDeleteNice article. But I cannot stop eating onions. I love them including in my salads :). Yet, I do agree that hoarding is bad. But, my experience shows that most people were buying lesser than they normally do due to excessive prices and the bad quality available as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your inputs Rachna. I do not recommend stopping to eat onions, only to stop hoarding them. The hoarding started when the media made the hype of spiraling prices. Unfortunately the poor farmer is still not making the money it is the middlemen who are the beneficiaries.
ReplyDeleteI think you have a point when you say Onions are hoarded as they last longer compared to say a cabbage or tomato. Still that is no escuse for lousy govt response to price rise
ReplyDeleteVisited the market yesterday, prices are now around 22 Rs/kg
ReplyDelete