The Centre has banned onion exports with immediate effect, while allowing exports of wheat and non-basmati rice.

An Empowered Group of Ministers' (EGoM) meeting on Thursday evening decided to review the ban on onion exports every fortnight. Two lakh tonnes each of wheat and rice will be allowed to be exported under open general licence.

The ban on onion comes two days after the Centre raised its minimum export price by $175 a tonne to $475 a tonne. Onion prices have been surging the past few weeks as the standing kharif crop is feared to have been affected by rain in growing areas. As on September 1, the Centre had stocks of 33.62 million tonnes (mt) wheat and 22.71 mt rice. The EGoM decided to continue the 7.5 per cent duty on imports of refined edible oils.