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Vegetable prices hit the roof in Himachal, Haryana
On Tuesday, a 42-kg sack of cauliflower fetched a price of ₹1,300 to ₹1,500 in Shimla’s Dhali market
After tomato, prices of vegetables, mainly cauliflower, have hit the roof. In the markets of Shimla, there is a huge difference in the prices of cauliflower as the government has failed to keep a check on the rates.
Cauliflower is being sold for ₹10 to ₹37 per kg in Dhali wholesale market, while Lower Bazar traders are selling it at a retail price of ₹100.
In nearby suburbs, the prices have even reached ₹120. The government issued a notification on May 9 this year, fixing a maximum of 25 per cent dividend for the retailers. However, the vendors are charging arbitrarily.
On Tuesday, a 42-kg sack of cauliflower fetched a price of ₹1,300 to ₹1,500 in Shimla’s Dhali market.
APMC secretary Devraj Kashyap said cauliflower was sold for ₹1,000 to a maximum of ₹3,700 per quintal. About 1,100 quintal of cabbage reached the market on Tuesday.
It is the common people who are bearing the brunt of the high prices even as the Opposition parties have also kept mum on the arbitrarily high prices.
Surprisingly, Solan’s tomato is reaching Shimla’s Dhali market via Chandigarh. Varun Sharma, director of KN Enterprises Dhali vegetable market, said they had to bring tomatoes from Chandigarh to meet the demand.
He said they brought a crate from Chandigarh mandi on Tuesday for ₹2,140 and it costs them ₹30 for marketing and ₹20 for labour expenses. This way, one crate reached Shimla in ₹2,210. The crate at Dhali market was sold for up to ₹2,300 per crate.
Sharma said the tomato prices have reached record highs due to low production in other states.
In Solan market, tomato is being sold from ₹1,800 to ₹2,000 per crate. To meet the demand in Shimla and surrounding areas traders are bringing tomatoes from Chandigarh.
Vegetable prices soar in Haryana
While the prices of most of the widely consumed summer vegetables like capsicum, lady finger, bitter gourd, brinjal, bottle gourd have also witnessed an over ₹100% increase in the past one week with ₹60 per kg.
Krishan Lal, a vegetable vendor, said that prices of vegetables have increased soon after the arrival of the monsoon.
“Now most of the vegetables are beyond the reach of the common man as they cannot think of buying tomato, capsicum and ladyfinger,” said Shobha Rani, a Karnal resident.
On the other hand, the rise in prices has brought a reason to smile for vegetable growers who termed it as an opportunity to recover from the losses they suffered earlier.
“Even the harvesting is at the last leg but the unprecedented rise in the prices of tomato has given us an opportunity to earn a huge profit by selling a crate of 25kg at ₹2,000,” said a farmer Mahinder Singh of Ladwa in Kurukshetra.
