India onion prices high enough to draw government intervention averaged about Rs 54.2 a kilogram nationally by 22 September, according to Consumer Affairs Ministry data reported by FreshPlaza, with prices in major cities ranging from Rs 29 to Rs 100 a kilogram and private trade in Delhi reaching Rs 60 to 70 a kilogram, well above the government’s subsidised buffer-stock rate of Rs 35.
The rise began building through August. Wholesale onion prices averaged Rs 2,897.64 a quintal in the week to 18 August, up 31.93% on the previous week and 118.37% on the same period a year earlier, according to Agmarknet data republished by FreshPlaza, even as tomato and potato prices fell sharply over the same year-on-year period. Retail prices followed within days: the FreePressJournal reported all-India average retail onion prices near Rs 40.72 to 40.79 a kilogram by 21 August, up from about Rs 34.87 a month earlier and Rs 28.72 a year earlier, with Lasalgaon’s wholesale market in Maharashtra up 30 to 42% within a single week.
Delayed sowing meets festive demand
Traders and officials attributed the August spike to delayed kharif-season sowing, which slowed the arrival of new-crop onions, combined with rising demand ahead of India’s festive season. City-level retail prices at the time ranged from roughly Rs 45 a kilogram in Bengaluru to Rs 55 to 60 in Kolkata and Chennai, with Delhi’s Azadpur wholesale market trading good-quality onions above Rs 45 to 50.
The government signalled plans from September to release onions from its buffer stock to ease prices. India’s 2026 buffer stock totalled 1.21 lakh tonnes, or 121,000 tonnes, managed jointly by the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation and Nafed, and distributed through road transport and a dedicated rail service known as the Kanda Express. By 22 September, subsidised buffer-stock onions were being sold at Rs 35 a kilogram across Delhi and more than 50 other cities.
A gap that buffer stock has not closed
Despite that intervention, private-market prices in Delhi remained well above the subsidised rate, at Rs 60 to 70 a kilogram in late September, indicating that buffer-stock releases eased but did not eliminate the shortage pressure building since August. Price gaps of this size between subsidised and open-market onions are not unusual during supply-tight periods in India, but the scale and duration this year, persisting from mid-August through late September, point to a slower-than-usual recovery in new-crop arrivals.
Agricultural economists tracking India’s onion markets say prices typically ease once the main late-season harvest reaches major mandis in sufficient volume, but the timing of that relief depends on how much further sowing delays push back the next crop cycle. For now, households in most major cities are still paying significantly more for onions than they were in mid-2025.
Government officials say they will continue buffer-stock releases if prices do not ease further once new-season supply increases.
Onion prices carry outsized political weight in India because the vegetable is a near-universal household staple, and sharp price spikes have historically drawn public attention and government intervention faster than price swings in many other food items. Previous onion price surges have prompted export bans and emergency import measures in past years, policies that traders say can stabilise domestic prices in the short term but sometimes disrupt supply chains for the following season’s crop.
For Kerala and other southern Indian states some distance from the main onion-growing belts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, transport costs add further pressure on retail prices during periods of tight supply, meaning price spikes recorded nationally often translate into even sharper increases for consumers further from the growing regions. Traders in southern markets say they are watching closely for signs that the main late-season harvest is reaching mandis in sufficient volume to ease the elevated prices that have persisted since August.
