Onion exports declined by 18 per cent to 4.86 lakh tonnes in the first half of the fiscal. It is happened due to the restriction imposed by the government. Exports dipped during the first six months of the fiscal as the government had hiked the minimum export price (MEP) to USD 700 per tonne in August this year.

Government scrapped the onion MEP recently to push outward bound shipments as domestic prices have been crashed. Now all varieties of union can be scrapped without any MEP.

Export status in case of Onions :

1. The exports stood at 4,85,930.51 tonnes during April-September period of the current 2015-16 fiscal compared with 5,89,900.89 tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to data compiled by National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF).
2. In August, the government had hiked onion MEP to $700 per tonne, from $425.
3. Earlier this month, the government had slashed the minimum export price (MEP) on onions to $400 per tonne from $700 to encourage outbound shipments of the commodity.