Chandigarh:
Amid soaring prices of onion in the country, truckloads of the commodity arrived in Chandigarh today from Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah land route for supply to northern markets in India.
As many as 13 truckloads (5 to 15 tonne per truck) of onion have arrived from Pakistan, a senior official of Customs department in Amritsar told PTI without quantifying the total import consignment.
About five (Indian) importers have brought in onion from Lahore today for supply in the markets of Ludhiana,Amritsar, Jalandhar in Punjab and Delhi, the official said.
The landed cost of onion from Pakistan stood at Rs. 18-20 per kg, he said adding this included custom duty, cess, transportation and handling charges.
According to importers, it was for the first time in this year, onions are being imported from Pakistan.
We this year exported onion to Pakistan in the month of March and April. Now we are importing it from them (Pakistan), Rajdeep Uppal, the MD of a leading Amritsar trading company Narain Exim said.
Uppal said as far as his company is concerned, it imported 100 Metric Tonne (MT) of onion today at a rate of USD 400 per MT.
He said it would import 500 MT of onion in coming days from Sindh provision in Pakistan.
Notably, onion prices in the country have doubled to Rs. 60-70 per kg in retail markets owing to low supply of crop from Maharashtra, Gujarat and southern states.
India and Pakistan agreed to commence truck movement from Attari Check post in Oct 2007 after a gap of sixty years to boost bilateral trade.
India mainly imports dry fruits from Pakistan and exports perishable commodities like onion, potato, tomato, garlic, livestock, cotton and maize through road route.