Importers are in a conundrum as to what should be done with 946 tonnes of onions brought against old LCs. The onions which were stuck in trucks for days have become rotten and the importers are facing loss.
Hili port sources say that India stopped the import of onions on Sept 29 and it started after a four-day hiatus on 4 October. At that time a lot of onions remained unsold. Importers brought the unsold onions to their warehouses, threw away the rotten ones and sold the good quality ones.
An importer says: “I incurred a loss of Tk. 3 million since the condition of the onions was awful, but Indian exporters are forcing these on us but we have clearly said that we don’t want them.”
These onions were stuck in a truck under rainfall and most of the onions have started to release water; no one will buy these, he added.
I mortgaged my land to open an LC but with the sudden moratorium on export by India has left us in the lurch, lamented the trader.