India's food prices have increased significantly over the weekend, leaving customers and shopkeepers extremely worried. Reuters reports the price of onions in particular has peaked. Onions are currently selling between Rs 70-80 per kilogram ($AU1.56- $AU1.78), after being worth Rs 45 ($AU1) only a few days ago. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) reports food inflation climbed nearly to a year's high of 18.32 per cent on December...
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Food inflation accelerates to year-high
India’s food inflation accelerated for the fifth straight week to the highest in more than a year, reinforcing fears it will spill over to broader prices and pile pressure on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to tighten monetary policy. unseasonal rains have pushed up prices of vegetables such as onions and tomatoes in recent weeks, and the authorities are bracing to live with elevated price levels in the near term. Onion...
More »Onion production likely to dip 12% this year
The country’s onion output is likely to dip by over 12% to 10.5 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year due to untimely and erratic rains last year, a top official said. India produced 12 million tonnes of onions in the 2009-10 crop year. Onions are grown in three seasons — kharif (summer), late kharif and rabi (winter). “We expect onion output to decline by 1.5 million tonnes to 10.5 million...
More »Rains drown India’s crop estimates, stoke inflation by S Sujatha & Jayashree Bhosale
From onions, sugar and coconuts, to tea, pulses, rice and spices, all kitchen ingredients will remain expensive in the New Year as unseasonal rains beyond the monsoon wipe out India’s major crops. Worse, rains are hampering the sowing of winter wheat, coarse grains and oilseeds, putting further pressure on food inflation that touched a two-and-a-half month high at 14.44% on Thursday. Across the country, farmers are helplessly watching their fields turn into...
More »Govt extends export ban on pulses
India, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of pulses, has extended ban on pulses exports until further orders, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Tuesday, as it battles to rein in high food prices. The government had in June 2006 banned exports of pulses, which has a weight of 0.72 per cent in the wholesale price index. India’s food price index rose 12.13 per cent in the year to December 11, government...
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