NASHIK: Prices of the summer onions dropped to a new low on Monday at the country’s largest wholesale market at Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), when farmers got Re 1 per kg for the crop.Before this, the minimum wholesale onion price had touched Re1 per kg on July 17, 2017. Prior to this, the minimum onion prices had dropped to 5 paisa per kg in 2016.The summer crop, harvested in March and April, has shelf life of about six months. Usually, the last batch of the summer crop reaches the market in mid-October, after which, the kharif onions takes over.This year, farmers stocked on the long-lasting summer crop hoping for a better price later. However, low demand and glut in the market brought prices crashing down. Even the fresh kharif crop is getting low rates at present. On Monday, kharif onions were selling at a minimum price of Rs 2 per kg and an average of Rs 5 a kg.The average wholesale onion prices have crashed by 91% in the past two months from Rs 21.51 per kg on October 17 to Rs 2 per kg on December 24. This occurred as supply exceeded demand.Farmers are finding it difficult to even recover the cost of transporting their produce to the market. To add to their woes, stocked onions have begun sprouting with the drop in minimum temperatures.“How will farmers survive if they get such a low price? We should be able to recover our costs at least, if not make some profit,” onion farmer Kuber Jadhav said, recommending that the government announce minimum support price of Rs 20 per kg for onions.APMC officials said farmers prefer storing onions in a bid to get better price for their produce. The current arrival of summer onions in the market is the farmers’ storage, which is about six months old. Moreover, the fresh kharif crop has also started arriving in the market, causing huge drop in demand for the summer onions.On Monday, minimum wholesale onion price was recorded at Rs 1 per kg and maximum wholesale price was recorded at Rs 3.91 per kg at Lasalgaon APMC. Average wholesale onion price was Rs 2 per kg. Totally, 12,000 quintals of onions were auctioned at Lasalgaon on Monday.