Vegetable prices go up on back of rains, fuel rates

With monsoon setting in across the country last week, and fuel prices on the up, the prices of meat, fruits and vegetables in the national capital have increased over the past seven days, a hike that traders said will soon reflect on the cost of more perishables in the coming days

With monsoon setting in across the country last week, and fuel prices on the up, the prices of meat, fruits and vegetables in the national capital have increased over the past seven days, a hike that traders said will soon reflect on the cost of more perishables in the coming days.

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The retail price of onions touched ₹50-60 per kg on Sunday, against an average of ₹40 a week ago, the price of potatoes went up from ₹25-30 per kg to ₹40 per kg, and price of raw chicken touched ₹240 a kilo in some parts of the city, against last week’s ₹200-220.

Prices of fruits and vegetables usually increase as monsoon covers the country, because of transportation and storage hurdles. This year, however, the record prices of automotive fuels, led to a hike in the price of vegetables even before large parts of northern India started witnessing monsoon rains, said traders across agricultural product markets in Delhi.

“Soon the price rise will start reflecting in food grains. Edible oil costs more than usual in any case. Any further increase will make things very difficult,” said Ankita Aggarwal, a resident of Delhi’s Indra Vihar neighbourhood.

“The prices have increased in the wholesale markets such as Azadpur, Okhla and Ghazipur. So, as a result, retail prices have increased as well. Prices usually go up in the monsoons, but this year prices have witnessed significant increase very soon. They are likely to go further up in the coming days. Prices of most vegetables have gone up,” said Sandeep Gupta, a retail vendor of fruits and vegetables in south Delhi’s Mehrauli market.

Adil Khan, chairperson of the Azadpur agricultural produce market, said: “There has been at least a 20% increase in transportation costs over the past week. It will obviously reflect in the wholesale and retail prices of fruits and vegetables. The central government should work towards reducing prices of diesel and petrol at the earliest.”

Iqbal Qureshi, a poultry trader and vice-chairperson of the wholesale poultry market in Ghazipur, said there was a similar situation in the poultry market. “We are paying higher transport costs for live chicken because of the increase in prices of petrol and diesel. So, retail rates of chicken and eggs have gone up.”

On Sunday, the cost of petrol in Delhi touched ₹101.84 a litre, and diesel went for ₹89.87.

The unrelenting upward movement of fuel rates since May 4 has seen saw petrol crossing ₹100 mark in various cities, particularly those in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.