The tender that was put out by India's largest public sector trading body MMTC, regarding 2,000 tons of onions, failed to get any bids. The tender to import onion closed on Thursday, and the agency was seeking the import shipments latest by Oct 31. The government-run corporation had invited bids to import onions from any country after prices of the bulb soared to over 80 rupees a kg (€1.02) in domestic retail markets. There were no bidders in MMTC's tender as many suppliers were finding it tough to meet the import quality parameters, traders said.
"The objective of the tender was to control prices (of onion). Now that the new crop from Karnataka has started arriving in the market, prices are almost under control. So, it (the failure to draw bids) wouldn't matter much," said Nitin Jain, a Lasalgaon-based trader.
Private players, meanwhile, have bought small quantity of onion from Afghanistan, which has tempered domestic prices over the last few days, said an official from Nilesh Trading Co, a Lasalgaon-based trading firm.
As reported by cogencis.com, the government imposed a ban on exports and put a cap on stocks that traders could hold, to keep a check on prices.