Garlic price turns food tasteless

If onion prices have diluted the gravy of your chicken do pyaja, prices of garlic and tomatoes will leave it tasteless.

If onion prices have diluted the gravy of your chicken do pyaja, prices of garlic and tomatoes will leave it tasteless.

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With garlic being sold at R300 per kg and tomato at R30 per kg on Tuesday — both higher than average prices around this time of the year — these essential items are burning a hole in the pocket of the aam aadami.

Brahma Yadav, chairman of Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board, said, "Consumption increases in winters and decreases in summer across India. Un-seasonal rains affected storage maximum along with extra dry weather in Rajasthan during summers that affected the stock that time."

Traders attributed rise in prices of garlic to drop in production to the tune of 30% in 2010 in the bulk producing states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh mainly due to un-seasonal rains.

At the wholesale markets, garlic, the bulb crop, was selling at R140 to R220 per kg (best quality), said Mohit Budhiraja of Gurdasmal and Sons, a major trading firm at Azadpur.

At Sarojini Nagar market, Indian whole garlic was sold at R300 per kg while Indian loose garlic was sold at R250 per kg.

However, I A Khan, joint secretary of Azadpur marketing committee, said, “There is no shortage. Wholesale rates for garlic are okay at R150 per kg.”