Centre says closely monitoring food prices

The central government on Friday said it is closely monitoring the prices and availability of essential food commodities to ensure affordability to consumers and maintain a stable price regime.

Measures like incentivising domestic production and import and export policies to ensure the overall availability and affordability of essential food commodities are being taken up.

"The Centre is taking pre-emptive and timely decisions to maintain price stability in the interest of consumers and farmers," according to a statement issued by the Food Ministry.

The production of pulses and onion in the 2024-25 crop year (July- June) is estimated to increase over the last year due to good monsoon rains and favourable weather conditions.

The tur production is estimated to be 35.02 lakh tonnne in 2024-25, 2.5 per cent higher than the previous year's production of 34.17 lakh tonne.

The agriculture ministry has issued sanctions for the procurement of tur. Kharif and late Kharif onion production has been estimated to be good on account of higher sowing.

Similarly, the rabi onion sowing has been progressing well. Food inflation moderated in December 2024 to 8.39 per cent from 10.87 per cent in October.