NEW DELHI – India on Friday urged Pakistan to allow onion exports after its regional rival and estranged neighbour cut off trade in the vegetable by land because of spiraling prices at home. The cost of the humble onion, which provides the pungent foundation for a thousand different curries and other dishes in the subcontinent, has shot up in both countries, leaving their governments grappling for solutions.
Onion prices have more than doubled in Pakistan as the country has exported huge amounts to its neighbour, which has been suffering a shortage due to poor harvests. The problem has been exacerbated in Pakistan by a worse-than-normal harvest there, too. In a bid to staunch soaring prices Islamabad this week stopped exports to India by road and train earlier as domestic consumers complained, the commerce ministry said. The clampdown was aimed at discouraging ordinary traders from trucking produce to India, where customs duties on onions were eliminated last month and the prices are higher. India has also banned exports.
Reacting to the move on Friday, Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna said New Delhi was attempting to reverse the Pakistani decision. “We are in touch with Pakistan and we are hopeful that we will find a solution to this (ban) and which will ease the problem,” Krishna told reporters.
Relations between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since independence in 1947, are riven by mistrust while efforts to get their slow-moving peace process back on track have stalled in recent months. The ban will do little to improve relations, and will almost inevitably be seen by some in India as a deliberate ploy to increase the hardship of consumers who are battling a 20-percent rise in food prices over 12 months.
Some vegetable traders in northern Indian said they had stopped their exports to Pakistan as retaliation. “We took this decision because when we needed vegetables (onion), Pakistan has simply banned the export of essential items,” Amritsar-based vegetable trader Anil Mehra told the Press Trust of India. The news agency quoted a customs official in India as saying no trucks carrying vegetables had passed over the border. Onion prices in India reached 80-85 Indian rupees ($1.75-$1.87) last month and are currently around 70 rupees a kilo, way above the “normal” retail price of 20-25 rupees.
Prices in Islamabad, where food items are generally more expensive than elsewhere, have risen from 40 Pakistani rupees last month to up to 90 rupees a kilo ($0.47 to $1.05).
“The exports triggered a shortage of onions in our domestic market,” a Pakistani commerce ministry spokesman said. “I can confirm the restriction has been imposed on exports of the commodity through the Wagah border,” he said, in reference to the land crossing between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since 1947. Exports of onions to India by sea, however, were not restricted, he said. New Delhi is keen to be seen to be doing everything within its power to control the price of the staple, aware of the influence of onion prices on public opinion. In one such instance in 1998, a six-fold surge in the cost of onions was held partly responsible for the electoral defeat of the ruling Delhi state government. A dearth of coconuts in Sri Lanka, which are an integral part of most people’s diet on the island, and the soaring price of cooking oil in Bangladesh also pose a serious challenge to governments in those countries. On Thursday, India’s commerce ministry said food inflation over 12 months had jumped for the fifth straight week, to 18.32 percent for the week ending December 25. Onion prices soared about 23 percent over the week, while the cost of fruit, eggs and meat also increased.
