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Vegetable traders sell roadside onions on September 24, 2019 in Noida, India. Photo by Virendra Gosain Singh / Hindustan Times via Getty Images

In India, the government has just banned exports of onions to curb inflation of this essential commodity. This happens when agricultural production was heavily affected last month by the floods.

With our correspondent in New Delhi, Sébastien Farcis

The kilo of onions sells these days between 60 and 80 rupees, or about 1 euro, which is between 3 and 4 times the normal price. And the authorities are very worried, because this vegetable is at the base of all the Indian cuisine, whether to make curry sauces or decorate meats.

This is the food of the poor, and such inflation can therefore dangerously ignite the minds of voters. To respond to this crisis, the federal government has immediately banned all exports of onions and limited the quantities that wholesalers can store, in order to prevent them from hoarding them to drive up prices.

This surge in prices is largely the result of major floods that occurred in the southern states of Maharashtra and Karnataka , Bombay and Bangalore regions, last August. Heavy rains then ravaged these agricultural areas and damaged the onion crops.