NEW DELHI, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Friday in a lighter vein that she stopped eating onions after India banned the commodity's exports in a bid to control the spiraling prices.
Hasina is here on a four-day official visit.
India had imposed a ban on onions exports on Sunday after prices of the commodity spiraled to as much as three times. The increase in prices was a result of large-scale damage to crops due to recent incessant rains and devastating floods in many parts of the country.
Normally sold at 20 Indian rupees (30 U.S. cents) per kilogram, onions are presently available at prices as high as 60 Indian Rupees (86 U.S. cents) per kilogram in retail market.
Addressing the India-Bangladesh Business Forum in New Delhi, Hasina said that the sudden decision by India to ban onions exports had left her countrymen in a grave problem.
She further went on saying in a lighter vein that on learning about India's ban on the commodity's exports she asked her cook to stop using onions in her meals.
"There is a problem with onions. I didn't know that you had banned onions exports. Then, I told my cook to stop using onions while cooking my meals," said the Bangladeshi premier leaving the audience in fits of laughter.
She urged the Indian leadership to pre-inform other countries before taking such decisions in the future.
According to media reports, following the ban on onions exports, Bangladesh had turned to countries like Myanmar, Egypt, Turkey and China in a bid to bring prices down.
