Onion Export from India 2026: Buyers, Prices, HS 070310

Onion export from India crossed 12.83 lakh tonnes by January of FY2025-26 — worth just ₹2,970 crore, big volume on thin money (Free Press Journal). Then the Gulf lane snapped. Shipments to Gulf countries dropped nearly 45% this spring as container rates jumped from $600-700 to about $6,500, and Lasalgaon summer onion slid to ₹1,500 a quintal against ₹2,627 a year earlier. Whipsaw is this trade's resting state: ban, MEP, duty, duty-free, freight shock — all inside 30 months.

The exporters who survive the swings don't sell to "Bangladesh" or "Dubai" in the abstract. They sell to named importers in Dhaka, Deira and Colombo whose purchasing shows up in shipment records, container by container. Here are the verified numbers for 2026, and how to turn them into a buyer list.

What does onion export from India look like in 2026?

Duty-free for the first time in years, and volume-heavy. FY2024-25 shipped 11,47,722 tonnes of fresh onion worth $453.95 million even though an MEP or export duty applied for most of that year (APEDA). Then the 2025 rabi crop came in huge — an estimated 227 lakh tonnes, over 18% above the previous 192 lakh — and the Centre scrapped the last 20% export duty from 1 April 2025 (PIB). Result: FY2025-26 was already at 12.83 lakh tonnes by January.

The catch is 2026 freight. Nashik shipped roughly 350 containers in March 2026 against 600 a year earlier, with Gulf-bound rates near $6,500 per container and India's overall onion exports off about 35% in that stretch (FPJ, April 2026). Sellers still in the market quote $500-750/MT FOB for standard red onion, with 60-90mm jumbo at $0.60-0.75/kg and 40-60mm medium at $0.50-0.65/kg (Tradologie).

Classification is simple by spice-trade standards: fresh or chilled onions ship under HS 070310 — India's schedule refines it to 07031010 — while dehydrated flakes take 071220 and onion powder 07129090. Search only the fresh code and you miss every dehydration plant's buyer. New to the system? Start with what an HS code is and how to use it.

Which country imports the most onions from India?

Bangladesh imports the most Indian onions — $209.5 million and 8.84 lakh tonnes in 2023, roughly a third of India's $642.7 million onion trade, per World Bank WITS. The top lanes by 2023 volume:

1. Bangladesh: $209.5 million (884,400 t)
2. UAE: $81.5 million (351,500 t)
3. Malaysia: $89.3 million (304,800 t)
4. Sri Lanka: $68.6 million (263,300 t)
5. Nepal: $27.1 million (133,700 t)
6. Indonesia: $22.8 million (81,200 t)

The order barely moved after the ban years. In 2024-25 Bangladesh took 43.26% of export value, then Sri Lanka 15.61%, UAE 15.47% and Malaysia 14.66%, with Kuwait, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Oman and Vietnam filling out the top ten (The Dollar Business). Four buyers absorb nearly nine-tenths of the trade — concentration that cuts both ways when one lane closes.

Six countries take almost all of India's onions. The importers inside each one — with tonnages, grades and dates — are named in shipment records long before any broker mentions them.

Onion export to Bangladesh: the lane that sets the market

Bangladesh has historically taken up to 40% of India's onion exports (Tradologie), and its swings move Lasalgaon prices within days. When Delhi banned exports in December 2023, Dhaka's supply gap grew so acute that India carved out a special 50,000-tonne allocation for Bangladesh inside a 99,150 MT six-country quota — routed solely through the state-run NCEL (PIB). Bangladesh resumed buying after a five-month gap in March 2024 (News On Air).

Working exporters treat this lane as a news trade. They track Dhaka's own harvest and any Indian policy murmur before quoting, because a duty tweak on either side can erase a contract's margin overnight. The volume is overland and fast-cycle — rail rakes and trucks, not just containers — so a seller holding graded stock near the border wins the panic weeks.

Onion export to Dubai: a quota lane rewired by freight

Onion export to Dubai runs on steadier demand — the UAE took 351,500 tonnes in 2023 and 15.47% of 2024-25 export value, feeding its own retail plus Gulf re-distribution. During the ban, the UAE was the other privileged buyer: 24,000 tonnes allowed, then 10,000 more, alongside 10,000 tonnes for Sri Lanka and a 2,000-tonne white onion carve-out grown for Middle East and European buyers (ThePrint). NCEL sourced at L1 prices on an e-platform and shipped against 100% advance payment — a rare glimpse of how a government-to-government onion deal actually settles.

In 2026 the lane's problem is freight, not policy: that $6,500 container quote is what cut Gulf volumes by 45%. Exporters who kept Dubai importers warm through the NCEL-only phase got first call when duty hit nil; the pattern of who receives what at Jebel Ali sits in UAE trade data.

From ban to duty-free: the 2023-26 policy timeline

Every buyer conversation since 2023 starts with policy. The loop, dated:

Thirty months, five regimes. The lesson traders repeat: sign buyers, not seasons — a named importer follows you through the next policy turn.

Nashik and Lasalgaon: the cluster behind the containers

Maharashtra grows 35.45% of India's onions — the country is the world's second-largest producer, on two crop cycles a year (APEDA) — and Nashik district is the export engine. Lasalgaon APMC, Asia's largest onion wholesale market, is the price gauge the whole trade quotes against (Tradologie). March 2026 told the stress story in one board: summer onion ₹1,500 and red onion ₹1,417 per quintal, versus ₹2,627 and ₹3,101 a year before, after unseasonal rain and hail hit the district on top of the freight spike (FPJ).

One habit separates Nashik's exporters from its traders: they grade for the destination before the price talk — 55mm-plus jumbo for Gulf supermarket programs, mixed medium for Dhaka's wholesale bulk — and they quote CIF only after checking the week's container rate, not last month's.

Onion export from India: the ShipScout buyer workflow

ShipScout is a global trade-intelligence platform — 11 billion-plus shipment records across 240+ countries, built as an affordable alternative to Panjiva and ImportGenius. It helps Indian onion exporters find and vet buyers with data-backed targeting, working from mirrored licensed trade data for India-linked trade. The onion play:

• Search HS 070310. See which importers in Dhaka, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Colombo are receiving fresh onion right now, at what cadence. Start in the company directory.
• Rank buyers inside one lane. A UAE importer clearing containers monthly outranks ten one-off buyers — sort by volume, work the top ten.
• Vet before shipping on credit. Onion margins can't absorb a default; here's how to verify an international partner before paying.
• Reach the decision-maker. Contact intelligence (where available) beats the info@ inbox; the wider playbook is in finding buyers for export from India.

Onion export from India is a 12.83-lakh-tonne trade whose buyer list already exists in the data — Start a free trial and search HS 070310 to read it.