Ministry of Foreign Affairs has maintained Maldivian businesses can import onions from India without any difficulties.
In a tweet, the foreign ministry said the difficulties faced by Maldivian businesses importing onions from India have been solved. The ministry said India would continue supplying Maldives onions under an agreement signed between the two countries during the visit of former Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to Maldives earlier this year. India extended the quota for Maldives from 8 varieties beginning from April 1, including onions.
India is the world's biggest seller of the Asian diet staple and it was compelled to ban exports after extended Monsoon downpours delayed harvests and shrivelled supplies. Onion prices in India jumped to USD 63.30 per 100 kilogram, the highest in nearly six years, due to the delay in summer-sown crop arrivals triggered by longer, heavier rains than usual, resulting in inflated onion prices across Asia.
India exported 2.2 million tonnes of fresh onions in the 2018/19 fiscal year that ended on March 31, according to data from India's Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.