Bangladesh appeals India to lift export ban on onion

Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi urged the government of India to lift ban on onion export to neighbouring country.

Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi urged the government of India to lift ban on onion export to neighbouring country.

Munshi who was in Guwahati on Tuesday to attend the India-Bangladesh stakeholders’ meeting said, “ I have spoken to India’s Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal recently and he has assured that the export ban will be lifted after Maharashtra elections are over”.

Along with Haryana and Maharastra assemblies by polls were held for 51 assemblie’s seats and two lok Lok Sabha seats on Monday.

He said Bangladesh is heavily dependent on India for onion and is now importing from Turkey, Myanmar and Egypt to meet the requirement of onion in the country. “We are short of 6 lakh tonnes of onion annually and India provides 80% of this shortage. Presently we are cooking food without Onion.”

Munshi said that India stopped export of onion one and half month back without prior information and this has caused difficulties in Bangladesh.

India banned the export of onions after excessive rainfall damaged the crop in September this year.

Globally India is one of the top exporters of onions globally. India exported fresh and chilled onions worth $496.82 million in 2018-19. Exports were worth $154.5 million in the first four months of 2019-20.