Food minister Ram Vilas Paswan a said in a tweet on Wednesday.
The lifting of ban would be effective once the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issues a notification in this regard.
The GoM on Wednesday also deliberated on whether to reduce or scrap the Minimum Export Price (MEP) on onion to facilitate outbound shipments, the sources said. The MEP is the rate below which no exports are allowed.
In September 2019, the government banned onion exports and also imposed a MEP of $850 per ton.
The move came after prices had started skyrocketing due to supply-demand mismatch. There was shortage of onion as was adversely affected due to excess rains and floods in key producing states, including Maharashtra.
“Currently, the arrival of rabi (winter) crop of onion has begun in small quantities and would increase from mid-March onwards. In March alone, onion arrivals are expected to be as as high as 40.68 lakh tonne (Metric Tonne) when compared with 28.44 lakh tonne in the year-ago period” , as per the sources.
The arrival is anticipated to be higher at 86 lakh tonne in April compared to 61 lakh tonne in the year-ago, they added. Buffer stocks in High quality storage arrangements are needed to help stabilize the onion prices- for betterment of both producers and consumers.
Exports of onion are expected to arrest sharp the fall in domestic prices and thereby protect the interest of growers, the sources said.
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Source: Economic Times