Farmers in Faridpur, the country's second-largest onion-producing district, are incurring heavy losses as onion prices have fallen well below production costs.
At major wholesale markets, including the Thenthenia onion market in Saltha Upazila, onions are selling for only Tk 800–900 per maund, while farmers say production costs range between Tk 1,500 and Tk 1,600 per maund, forcing them to sell at nearly half of their investment.
The Thenthenia market, sits every Saturday and Tuesday from 6 am to 10 am, is one of the country's largest onion trading hubs. Farmers transport onions by vans, auto-rickshaws, baskets and sacks, while more than 200 wholesalers from across the country purchase the produce for distribution to major cities.
Atghar Union Chairman Shahidul Islam said onion transactions worth over Tk 1crore take place on each market day, with traders arriving from Dhaka, Chittagong, Barisal and other regions.
Farmers said rising cultivation costs and increased production this season have combined to depress prices. Growers Nizam Uddin, Alamgir, Ibrahim Sheikh and Nisar Uddin Khan said they stored onions for weeks in the hope that prices would improve, but the market remained weak. They said a price of Tk 2,000–2,200 per maund would have allowed them to recover their production costs.
Advocate Malik Majumdar of the Faridpur Krishak Samity warned that prolonged low prices could hurt the wider rural economy, as thousands of families in Saltha, Nagarkanda, Boalmari, Bhanga, Sadarpur and Madhukhali depend on onion cultivation and trade. Kanaipur wholesaler Shahjahan Mollah said traders are also earning lower profits, while Faridpur wholesaler Anand Saha attributed the price decline to a bumper harvest and oversupply, adding that improved market management could benefit both farmers and traders.
Professor Shipra Roy, president of Faridpur's SANAK, said expanding modern storage facilities is essential to stabilise prices by allowing farmers to store onions instead of selling immediately after harvest.
Md Shahaduzzaman, Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Faridpur, said 1,430 airflow storage machines were distributed during the 2024–25 fiscal year, another 700 have been supplied this year, and 2,500 more are planned. He said improved storage would help farmers delay sales until prices improve, although recent power disruptions have affected storage operations.
Faridpur cultivates three varieties of onions—winter, spring and bulb onions—with Hali onion being the most widely grown. This season, onion cultivation covered around 38,000 hectares, reaffirming the district's position as one of Bangladesh's leading onion-producing regions.