The Centre on Thursday said it has contracted to import an additional 12,660 tonnes of onion and the shipment will reach India from December 27 onwards.

With this, the total quantity of imports that have been contracted so far reached approximately 30,000 tonnes, but there is no respire in the commodity’s prices as the government looks clueless.

Onion prices are soaring above the Rs 100 per kg mark for weeks now, pushing the Indian kitchen staple out of the reach of the poor and lower middle class.