Market arrivals and price behavior of Onion in India

The price fluctuations in onion are a major concern among farmers, consumers and policy makers. The current study is an attempt to analyze the behavior of prices and arrivals of onion in the major markets of India. The time series data regarding monthly onion prices and arrivals in the major markets of leading producing states were collected from various secondary sources. The prices of onion significantly increased over the last fifteen years in all the sample markets. During this period, the arrival of onion increased significantly in all of the selected markets except in Delhi market in which arrivals decreased over time. The seasonal indices of arrivals revealed the presence of unique pattern in nearby markets and in a same production zone. On the other hand, the seasonal price variation in all selected markets confirmed significant seasonality in price indices, with being lowest in the months of April and May; remained high during the months of August to January and then decrease in later months.