This season, the Indian Vaidika Group, which owns 6,000 hectares of plantations and works also with associated growers, has already exported between 15 and 20 onion containers of the best quality. Manager Somesh Phadnis affirms that “this year we’ve received many more client enquiries from Mombasa and South Sudan, and especially from the UK, where sales have increased by about 50%.” When it comes to the market situation, Mr Phadnis assures that, while not only in Asia, but in the whole world, growers have been receiving lower prices for their onions, at the moment these are “increasing day by day because of crop damages due to unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms. Domestic prices have hiked to around 22-25 Rs/Kg (0.31-0.36 Euro) and for the rest of the season India won’t be able to export at a lower price.”
He also believes that onion prices will increase even more, as after 10 June the season in India will finish due to the arrival of the monsoon. “For us, the export campaign will start again in September.”
As regards the potato season, Mr Phadnis states that the situation this year is quite bad, with shipments amounting to just 3% of last year’s. In any case, it is worth noting that Vaidika Group is still India’s largest exporter, accounting for 5 of the total 10 containers shipped this campaign. “Despite the much lower volumes this season, we still managed to fulfil Russia’s quality requirements,” he assures.
He explains that the main problem this season has been the devaluation of the huge exports made by Bangladesh and Pakistan, “which brought prices down by between 60 and 70%.” In terms of markets, Vaidika’s potatoes, mostly of the Sona variety, have been exported by reefer containers to importers in Russia and Mauritius.
For more information:
Author: Juan Zea Estellés / Yzza Ibrahim