The incessant rainfall, severe devastation, and hindered transportation in the states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana have adversely been affecting the state of Tamil Nadu to face a dearth of supply in vegetables, particularly onion, and as the sequel of reduced supply, the people in Tamil Nadu have been bracing up the surge in the cost of the vegetables. 

Onion, which is one of the most purchased commodities in Indian households, has now been troubling the people after its price has surged to a new high due to the shortage in supply of the commodity from the states that were inundated by heavy rains as the current state has made onion as one of the elite vegetables. 

Leaving the people to meet the sudden surge, onion has been causing major disruption in the households and the price would likely go high in the coming days, ahead of the festive season. While the Koyambedu wholesale market had registered a surge, the price of the onion in the markets across the city would likely cost more than Koyambedu. 

According to reports, the Koyambedu wholesale market was receiving 775 tonnes of onion every day until last week. Following the flood in the northern states, the supply has got drastically affected whereas the wholesale market has received 550 tonnes of onions for the past two days, causing about 225 tonnes of shortage in the actual supply.  

As the sequel of the shortage in the actual supply, consumers have been levied with the burden to pay more to purchase onions as the reduced supply and increased demand had combinedly surged the price. The reports say that the price of onion was Rs 35-50 per kg in Koyambedu last week, however, for the past two days, the price had increased to Rs 70 per kg of onion. 

The impact of the increase in the price of onion in Koyambedu was seen in the neighborhood markets including Medavakkam where per kg of onion has currently been selling at Rs 84 against Rs 60 last week. Speaking to a news agency, the secretary of wholesale vegetable markets association said the heavy rains in Karnataka and Maharashtra have affected the supply of onions. 

The secretary stated that the affected arrivals of onion to the Koyambedu wholesale market had caused a surge. The market currently receives 15 trucks of onions less than its actual arrivals. After there has been a shortage in the widespread supply, the traders from the neighboring districts have been thronging to the Koyambedu market to procure onions on a large scale. 

The Koyambedu market was receiving 50 trucks of onions last week and now it has lost 15 trucks in a week and the secretary reveals that if the current state prevails, the price of one kg of the first quality onion would go high that Rs 100 this week at the local markets. According to some reports, small onion and Bellary onion have been getting traded at Rs 100 per kg respectively in retail markets.