Performance of Production and Trade of Onion in India

Onion is an important vegetable crop grown and consumed widely across the world. India is the second largest producer of onion, in the world next only to China but the productivity of onion in India is very lowi.e. 14.21 tons/ ha. Keeping this in view the present study is undertaken to analyze growth in area and production, seasonal indices of arrivals and prices, trend in export of major onion growing counties and trade direction of Indian onion. The study was based on secondary data collected from various sources such as APEDA, Directorate of Economics and Statistics. Compound growth rate and Markov chain analysis were carried out. Results of the study revealed that, in India among the states Bihar is having highest significant growth rate in area under cultivation of onion followed by Gujarat (12.75%). Among the major onion exporting counties China is showing the highest growth rate (19.37%) in export over last 21 years followed by India (9.68%). China showing highest export growth rate it may become competitive exporter in the international market. Trade direction analysis revealed that Malaysia was one of the most stable markets among the major importers of onion from India as reflected by high probability of retention of 0.5141, followed by UAE (39.67%), Hence, India may have to maintain a good trade relation with these countries.