Saurashtra’s onions find a market in Bangladesh, courtesy Railways

In a very first for onion growers in the Saurashtra area of Gujarat, Indian Railways is using their bulb to a prospective current market, all the way to Bangladesh.

The very first items train — a rake of 42 wagons — carrying about 2,five hundred tonnes of onions from the districts of Rajkot and Junagadh will start out from Dhoraji station in Rajkot district and attain Darshana railway station on the Bangladesh border.

“Loading will be done these days and the very first rake will start out for Bangladesh. It is anticipated to attain Darshana station in 3 times as we have a lot greater path availability for items trains at present,” mentioned VK Tailor, Senior Divisional Business Supervisor, Bhavnagar Division of Western Railways.

In the absence of typical passenger visitors because of to the pandemic, the Railways is exploring techniques to scale up its commercial revenues by tapping new organization avenues with trading communities, APMCs, merchants and bulk buyers/industrial customers to test their transportation prerequisites.

The Railways found substantial portions of onions with traders in the locations of Junagadh, Dhoraji, Upleta, and Gondal. “We spoke to them and determined them to use rail transportation to send out them to Bangladesh, where there was a excellent demand. At the instant, this is the very first rake, but about time we assume much more these types of rakes to go,” Tailor informed BusinessLine.

Dhoraji-primarily based Mahesh Nathwani is amongst the dozen onion traders who loaded onions for export to Bangladesh, and finds it a lot more quickly and more cost-effective method than vehicles.

“I have 8 wagons of my onion shares in this rake. We have a excellent deal in freight. Also, the current market prices in Bangladesh are greater than our neighborhood price ranges. This tends to make it a successful proposition for us,” Nathwani mentioned, adding that the freight price of ₹1.12 lakh per wagon (that contains forty tonnes of onions) is effective out to be 50 per cent more cost-effective than truck-transportation.

Freight earnings

The Railways is anticipated to make freight earnings of ₹46.55 lakh. Although the shift is effective for the Railways amid slipping revenues because of to suspension of normal passenger trains, it has also appear as a boon for the onion growers, who noticed price ranges crashing in the neighborhood wholesale markets because of to a glut as bulk buyers stayed away as there was no demand from resorts and dining places.

Highlighting the significance of the progress, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had also tweeted stating, the shift is “propelling agriculture exports to economically empower farmers… in a very first, railways is transporting onions from Dhoraji in Gujarat to Bangladesh.”

In 2018-19, Gujarat produced about seven,20,000 tonnes of onion (six,69,000 tonnes all through the rabi year and about fifty one,000 tonnes all through summer months harvest). This yr, the 2019-20 harvest year, onion output is approximated (State government’s Fourth Advance Estimate), at thirteen,06,000 tonnes, about eighty per cent much more than the earlier yr, creating a glut.

The price ranges plummeted from ₹2,988 per quintal in January at Mahuva current market, to ₹933 per quintal in June.

As per trade sources, Bangladesh current market price ranges are much more than double the neighborhood prices. Immediately after forex conversion, the Bangladeshi onion prices exercise session at ₹15-17 per kg.