New Delhi, Jan. 7: The Centre today indicated it was in talks to resume the supply of onions from Pakistan, a day after the neighbour’s troubled Punjab province banned exports of the item to India by road.

“We have initiated talks. We are hopeful that we will find a solution to this problem, easing the pressure within our country for onions,” external affairs minister S.M. Krishna said as prices shot up to Rs 65 and traders in India’s Punjab began holding back Pakistan-bound vegetable consignments to protest the onion blow.

Pakistan’s Punjab, the country’s most powerful province whose governor Salmaan Taseer was gunned down two days ago, stopped 300 trucks of onions bound for India on the Wagah border yesterday citing rising domestic prices.

But the clampdown has not gone down well within Pakistan itself. According to reports, traders in Lahore are disappointed at their government’s decision. “Such decisions hamper trade between the two countries and lead to wastage of perishable goods. This is in the interest of neither the government nor traders and consumers,” said Iftikhar Ali Malik, vice-president of the Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Some of the traders who bagged big orders from India have demanded that Pakistani customs at Wagah border clear the contracted consignments of 300 trucks.

But the backlash against the ban has already started. In Amritsar, exporters refused to send trucks carrying tomatoes and other vegetables to Pakistan via Attari and Wagah today. “We will not export vegetables to Pakistan because Pakistan government has put a ban on onion exports to us,” said Anil Mehra, who was among a group of 40 traders who took a collective decision not to export vegetables to Pakistan.

Mehra shrugged off the prospect of losses that would arise if the consignments remain stuck. “We took this decision because when we needed vegetables (onion), Pakistan has simply banned the export of an essential item.”

Almost 70 trucks carrying vegetables like tomatoes, ginger, chillies were withheld and not sent for customs clearance. “So far, no truck carrying vegetables has crossed over to Pakistan through the land route...though five to six trucks containing soybean (animal feed) have moved,” a customs official in Amritsar said.

India is a major exporter of vegetables to Pakistan. Tomatoes alone account for 30-32 per cent of the export basket and soybean 55 per cent.

Around 7,000 tonnes of onion had arrived from Pakistan through the land route in recent weeks, sending prices in Punjab and Chandigarh dropping to Rs 15 to 20 from Rs 70-80.

Commerce secretary Rahul Khullar had yesterday said a contract had been signed for supply of Pakistani onions through the Mundra port in Gujarat. But such shipments may take couple of days to reach India, unlike export across the land route which it takes only half a day.