Even after Bangladesh renewed its request to India to lift the ban on onion exports, Delhi is still hesitant to take a final decision.

But many Indian onion exporters told the BBC that new crops have now reached the market and prices have come down considerably, so there would be no problem in resuming exports.

Besides, the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, with which in mind the government had been desperate to keep domestic onion prices within reach, ended two days ago.

Against this background, when might onion exports from India to Bangladesh resume?

At an event in Guwahati, the capital of Assam, on Tuesday, Bangladesh's Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said India's sudden decision to stop onion exports without warning had caused great difficulty for Bangladesh.

He also asked for the ban to be lifted immediately.

Several Indian union ministers and chief ministers of states including Assam and Tripura were present at the event.

In front of them, Mr Munshi also said India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had assured him that onions would start going to Bangladesh again once the Maharashtra election was over.

Meanwhile, India's leading exporters also think there is now no obstacle to sending onions abroad again.

Rahul Chowdhury of Gribble Agro Export in Nashik, known as India's "onion capital", said: "Exports can certainly start again now. Our buyers in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are waiting."

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.