Monsoon onion price hits five-year record high at end-Jan 2023

The price of monsoon onion hit the highest in the last week of January 2023 from the corresponding period in the past five years. Moreover, there is a great prospect for the summer onions that will be harvested in the upcoming summer to jump to the highest compared to the same period in the five years.
The price of summer onions stood around K800 per viss. This year, it is likely to rise above K1,000.
On 23 January, Yangon’s Bayintnaung Wholesale Market saw a bulk supply of over 250,000 visses of onions during the post-Chinese New Year Festival and half of them are from the Myittha area, said a trader Ko Swe.
The onions are primarily supplied from Myingyan, Seikphyu, Taungtha, Monywa, Sinphyukyun and Minbu areas. Those from Pakokku, Meiktila, Kyaukpadaung, Minhla, Pyawbwe and Mahlaing areas also flow into markets. The monsoon onions are forecast to continue to enter Yangon markets.
On 23 January 2023, the onion prices stood at K1,800-1,900 per viss from Myingyan, K1,650-K1,900 from Seikphyu and K2,000-K2,400 from the Myittha area.
During the same periods in the past years, the highest prices were K675-K1,000 per viss in 2022, K475 in 2021, K1,100-K1,300 in 2020 and K600-K1,100 in 2019 respectively.
Between 6 December 2022 and 23 January 2023, a total of 6.5 million visses of monsoon onions from various regions flowed into Yangon markets.
The new onions cultivated in winter are soon to arrive in the markets, said an onion warehouse owner.
Rocketing cultivation input prices hiked up the production cost to K2.5 million per acre. The yield rate is estimated at 4,000-6,000 viss per acre. There are approximately 100,000 acres of onions in the country, with a production capacity of 600 million visses.
Last year, adverse weather conditions and other circumstances scaled down the onion acreage by half. Thus, the price surged to the new peak of K5,100 per viss at the end of 2022. —TWA/EMM