Following an announcement by the Union Government last night, that the ban had been lifted to allow exports up to 25,000 tonnes per month for three months, traders and exporters held a meeting this morning to discuss the issue. They have decided to continue with the boycott and meet again on Saturday, to plan further course of action. The traders and exporters demanded that the ban be withdrawn totally with immediate effect, without any ceiling.

Nandkumar Daga of the Traders' Association said that ``unless the official notification were received, no decision would be possible on resuming auctions.'' He pointed out that, according to reports, the ban had been relaxed from March 1, which would have no effect on the markets immediately as traders would notbuy the commodity for storage as it was highly perishable.

Ashok Mohanlal Shah, a local exporter, said that the traders wanted total lifting of the ban without any ceiling for official agencies as well as private exporters with immediate effect. He said that till the confusion was clear, no trading was possible.

The branch manager of NAFED, S M Pillai, said that the agency had not yet received the official notification. He said that the Union Government's decision in the media was confusing and unless the notification was received, NAFED would not start buying onions. He pointed out that the ban had been reportedly lifted from March 1, which raised questions over whether the export quota of 25,000 tonnes per month was for the months of February, March and April or from March to May.

All the wholesale marketyards today remained deserted as farmers as well as traders stayed away. The ban had been imposed on October 8 last year and was valid upto January 31, 1999. However, the Union Government hadrelaxed the ban on January 22, exempting two varieties of onions (Bangalore Rose of Karnataka and Krishnapuram of Andhra Pradesh) from the ban and for the rest of the varieties and in other parts of the country exports were allowed upto 3,000 tones. The NAFED had, since then, shipped 250 tonnes of onions to the Sri Lankan government's official importing agency. Another shipment of 500 tonnes is pending.

Incidentally, the earlier notification of the Union Government (relaxing the ban for some varieties of onions) announced on January 22, had reached the concerned officials and agencies after ten days, on February 1.

The wholesale prices of onions, which were upto Rs. 4,000 per quintal in October last, have dropped below Rs 300 per quintal, following the arrival of the new crop. The official agency, National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation has predicted a bumper crop of 47.2 lakh tonnes during this year, 1998-99, as against 36.85 lakh tonnes.