Veggies, fruit prices go through the roof and out of stock in Gurugram

Gurugram residents complained that vegetable and fruit prices shot up on Monday as Haryana went into a seven-day lockdown in an effort to curb Covid-19

Gurugram residents complained that vegetable and fruit prices shot up on Monday as Haryana went into a seven-day lockdown in an effort to curb Covid-19. Haryana State Agricultural Market Board (HSAMB) officials said they suspected that the prices were being artificially inflated. But vegetable vendors said that the price rise was due to the increased demand as people scrambled to stock up for the week.

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Gurugram was locked down since Friday night when the state government announced a weekend curfew in nine districts. On Sunday, the government announced a lockdown till May 10 in the entire state. Even as the residents alleged prices were higher in the retail market, HSAMB officials did not share the information on prices.

“I purchased onions at ₹60 per kilogram from my local vegetable seller, more than double the market price. The vendor informed me that the his stock was fast running out and hence, he was selling all the vegetables at inflated prices. I am now exploring ways to procure frozen vegetables, packaged potatoes, and dehydrated onions via online shopping until the lockdown is over as they will be much cheaper,” said Tanuja Kumar, a resident of sector 53.

Mihir Kohli, a resident of DLF 5, said that a wholesale vegetable seller near his house ran out of stock by noon, while stocks of fruits and vegetables were also over around the same time on several e-commerce apps.

“The wholesale seller delivers to homes and is an ideal option for hundreds of residents during the lockdown. However, such was the demand that his stock finished by noon. I then tried to purchase them through e-commerce website but their stock too was over. I finally asked the vegetable seller inside the condominium for a few vegetables and purchased it at three times the price,” said Kohli.

Anaita Kaul, a resident of DLF Phase 4, said that she had been relying on e-commerce stores for her fruits and vegetables till now but they were now running out early in the day.

“The app I used had a midnight deadline for items. A week ago, they moved it up by an hour citing high demand. While the deadline remains the same, fruits and vegetables since Saturday have been running out of stock by around 1 PM. On the app, the company has put a notice stating that they have run out of capacity and cannot take any more orders,” said Kaul.

Low wholesale, high retail

Mandi sellers said that without their daily customers, and only catering to vendors, have forced them to sell their goods at 10-15% lower than market price.

“We have too much stock and hardly any buyers. Only small time vendors are visiting the mandi to purchase items. Without any daily customers, we are selling our goods at lower prices to ensure vendors pick up more of our stock which would otherwise go to waste,” said Rajesh Yadav, a vegetable vendor in Sadar Bazar mandi.

Local vegetable vendors said that in the last two days, they have ran out of stock by afternoon, and they increased prices due to demand.

“Earlier, my one-time purchase from the mandi (market) would last me for a minimum of two days. However, such is the demand now that the stock is over in less than half a day. Realising the demand, I have increased my prices to increase my profits and I am also in the process of procuring more stock from wholesale markets and local mandis due to the surging demand,” said Ashok Yadav, a vegetable vendor in sector 50.

Will act: agriculture board

Vinay Yadav, secretary, HSAMB, said that the board has taken cognisance of the issues and will curb it.

“The board has received complaints from many residents about the inflated prices of fruits and vegetables throughout the city. We will take two main steps to keep a check on this. On Tuesday, we will be releasing both the retail and wholesale market prices of vegetables and fruits via a public notice as well as circulating the same on various RWA groups to ensure people are informed about the correct prices and can report instances of inflated prices back to us so that our teams can penalise such violators,” said Yadav.

Yadav also said that the HSAMB will be constituting teams on Wednesday who will be visiting various retail markets, roadside vendors, and residential shops at random to check for inflated pricing and penalise offenders while they will also pay a visit to other such establishment based on a tip-off from residents or RWAs.

HSAMB officials, as well as vegetable vendors, shopkeepers, and sellers at markets maintained that there is no issue in regards to supply.