Indonesia looking to import onion to check rising prices

The shipment delay of onions from India followed by the diminishing supply of onion in the Indonesian market has brought the price of this commodity to the current level of IDR 200.000/Kg compared to IDR 170.000/Kg of early last week. To stabilize the rising onion prices, the central government has mandated its Ministry of Trade to find an alternative country to source around 2,000 MT of fresh onions to increase the national stock. New Zealand is one of the countries that the Indonesian government is considering importing from, with the possibility to import this commodity by air-freight. The additional supply of onion would later be distributed evenly across Indonesia and is expected to help stabilize the price to a more affordable level for the consumers.