NEW DELHI, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Indian government on Sunday prohibited the export of all varieties of onions with immediate effect, an official statement said.

"Export policy of onion for the item description at Serial Number 51 & 52 of Chapter 7 of Schedule 2 of ITC (HS) classification of Export and Import Items is amended from free to prohibited till further orders," Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in the statement.

The move is taken in order to curb rising onion price across the country.

The price of onions has increased to nearly threefold over the past couple of weeks in India due to supply disruption caused by floods in major onion producing states including Maharashtra and Karnataka.