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.