NEW DELHI: Prolonged heatwave across north and north-western states has impacted the production of seasonal vegetables, leading to a rise in their prices.
Vegetable wholesalers and retailers in Delhi’s agricultural produce markets and retail markets said the supply of
green vegetables
was down by nearly 20% that had led to a surge in both wholesale and retail prices across the markets.
The prices of kitchen staples, including tomato, onion and potato, and green vegetables such as bottle gourd, sponge gourd, capsicum, colocasia, ladies finger, coriander and cucumber have seen 20-30% increase since the onset of the summer.
Anil Malhotra, an office bearer of the vegetable traders’ body, said crops of vegetables were getting ruined due to lack of rainfall, poor water availability and high temperature.
“In the wake of the short supply, the
wholesale prices
of vegetables are on the higher side. It will only start easing after 15-20 days of the rains when we have a fresh stock of produce,” Malhotra said.
Varinder Bhadana, another vegetable wholesaler, said that “usually the prices of vegetables, especially onion and tomato, start going northwards after heavy rains in central and western India that spoil the produce. The transportation of vegetables also sometimes gets affected due to heavy rains and flood-like situations”.
“This time, the prices have started surging from the month of June itself. We only expect the stability in prices from Sept onwards after the monsoon starts receding and the fresh produce of these vegetables reaches the market,” said Bhadana.
Another wholesaler said there had been instances when the wholesale prices went up marginally but the retailers jacked them up to earn more margins. “The retail prices of some of the vegetables have gone up by almost 50% while the wholesale prices have increased only by 20% or so,” said Purushottam Dagar, a wholesaler in Ghazipur.
Severe heatwave has also resulted in reduced supply of other key food items such as pulses and cereals. The impact of curbs on food exports and lowering the import tariffs has not been much. For consumers, this has resulted in higher spending on kitchen essentials.
Kritika Gupta, a resident of East Delhi’s Preet Vihar, said her spending on vegetables had increased by over 50% in the last couple of months.
“I get my supplies of vegetables and fruits from a neighbourhood shop. Prices of every single commodity have increased and disturbed my budget,” Gupta said. “The prices of vegetables and pulses increase every 2-3 months and rarely come down now,” she added.
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