Vegetable prices shoot up

Tomatoes, which were being sold at Rs 25-a-kg till last week, have now gone up to Rs 50-a-kg in Rythu Bazars while chilli, which was Rs 60-a-kg, is now being sold at Rs 83-a-kg

Hyderabad: Vegetable prices have registered a steep increase in the last one week due to short supply from the local growers. Tomatoes, which were being sold at Rs 25-a-kg till last week, have now gone up to Rs 50-a-kg in Rythu Bazars while chilli, which was Rs 60-a-kg, is now being sold at Rs 83-a-kg. Not just tomatoes and chilli, even the prices of carrot and capsicum have shot up. Carrot is being sold at Rs 61-a-kg while capsicum at Rs 39-a-kg.

According to officials of marketing department, supplies have gone down by about 30 per cent. The main reason is that the farmers normally go in for multi-crop during summer but this time they opted only for a single crop. Secondly, the recent rains had damaged the standing crops.

Prices of chillies and tomatoes have gone up incredibly high, said an official of the Marketing Department. It is unlikely that consumers are going to get any relief for another month. Marketing Department is taking necessary measures to ensure that there is no short supply of chillies and tomatoes in market but there was not much that it could do to reduce the prices as it has to import vegetables from other places. A review meeting was held late on Wednesday to study the supply situation.

The prices of tomato at private vegetable shops and super markets range from Rs 60 to Rs 70-a- kg and chillies Rs 90-a-kg to Rs 110-a- kg depending upon the local demand. Similarly, carrot is selling at Rs 65, capsicum over Rs 40, brinjal Rs 40, lady’s finger Rs 50, bitter gourd Rs 35, cucumber Rs 30, colacasio (arvi) Rs 40, cluster beans Rs 50-a-kg.

Director of Marketing Department G Lakshmi Bai said that it was decided to continue buying tomatoes from Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh. In the past during such situations, tomatoes were brought from Maharashtra as well but now the tomato crop in Maharashtra is damaged and they too are depending on tomatoes from Madanapalle.

As far as green chillies are concerned, they are being purchased from Uttar Pradesh, Kurnool and Meerut. It is expected that the prices of green chillies may come down by next month as the produce from Ananthapuram has already started arriving in Hyderabad. But the prices of tomatoes would continue to be high till July end.

V Naga Raju, vegetable vendor in Mehdipatnam Rythu Bazar, said, "earlier, I used to sell my stock by 3pm but now the sales have registered a steep fall.” Another vendor S Vittal Reddy said that he had suffered a loss as he could not sell his stock. He was forced to sell it at a big discount to small vendors since his stock was getting spoilt on account of rain.

The sudden increase in prices and that too towards the end of the month has put a burden on the family budget, rued K Anuradha from Begumpet. She said tomato, chilli and carrots are necessary for daily use but now she is forced to buy bare minimum quantity. Anuradha said she used to buy one kg of tomatoes every week but now she has to be selective in its use.

P Lakshmi, who visits Mehdipatnam Rythu Bazar regularly, said increase of prices does happen every monsoon. She felt that the government should come up with a contingency plan to see that the burden on the common man was minimised. “The prices shoot up, but not our salaries,” she said.