From Malaysia to Sri Lanka, Asia feels the bite of India’s onion export ban because it’s in ‘almost everything we cook’

The world’s biggest exporter of onions banned shipments on December 8 after domestic prices more than doubled in three months following a drop in production.

“Onions are needed for almost everything we cook,” said Mousumi Akhtar, who works in the private sector in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. “This sudden price hike is tough to swallow. I’ve had to cut back on how much I buy.”

Asia braces for more rice-price shocks as India’s export ban unnerves markets

To overcome the shortage, Bangladesh is trying to source more from China, Egypt and Turkey, said commerce ministry official Tapan Kanti Ghosh.

As general elections approach next month in Bangladesh, the government has begun selling onions at subsidised prices to the poor, hoping to offset a surge of more than 50 per cent in prices after India’s ban.

Even worse is the situation in landlocked Nepal, which imports most of its onions.

“Since the ban by India, we have monitored the supply situation at different places. There are no onions on sale,” said Tirtharaj Chiluwal, an official of the Himalayan nation’s commerce ministry.

Nepal is considering imports from China and may ask India to make an exception and allow exports, said ministry spokesperson Gajendra Kumar Thakur.

Limited options

All would run out of supplies if India’s ban lasted for an extended period, said one exporter based in Mumbai, the financial capital.

Within a week after the ban, onions became 20 per cent cheaper in India as supplies from the new season’s crop came in, traders said.

Now, with domestic supplies more than adequate to satisfy demand at home, Shah, the exporter, said India should allow exports to maintain its global market position.

As El Nino upsets India’s food supplies, will it cause prices to ‘shoot up’?

New Delhi has also reined in exports of rice, sugar and wheat.

Since India’s ban, onion prices have nearly doubled in Sri Lanka, which is slowly emerging from its worst financial crisis in nearly seven decades.

Malaysia, like other importers, is also trying to secure supplies from China and Pakistan, said Seri Mohamad Sabu, its agriculture minister.