While the recent spell of heavy rains in and around the city has significantly affected the arrival of vegetables in the markets, the ongoing festive season is creating additional demand for it which is eventually pushing up the prices.

The wholesale vegetable market, which normally witnesses the arrival of more than 80 trucks of vegetables every day, saw less than 60 trucks arriving in the markets on Sunday. Ram Mahajan, one of the leading vegetable dealers based in Phule Market and office-bearer of the dealers’ association, said vegetables like coriander, methi, spinach, green chillies, brinjal and lady finger among other varieties are in short supply.

 

“Many farmers in the adjoining places could not manage to pluck vegetables from their farms due to heavy rains. In many other places, the labourers could not visit the farms. Similarly, many vegetable suppliers from far off places also failed to supply enough quantities of vegetables,” he added. “On the other hand, because of the ongoing Ganesh festival there is good demand for vegetables,” he said, adding that the shortage is increasing the prices. Ideally, the markets see the arrival of more than normal vegetables during Ganesh festival. Green vegetables, brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, etc. enjoy good demand during the ten-day festival. Sarvajanik Ganapati pandals also create good demand for vegetables when they buy it for ‘mahaprashad’.

 

The vegetable dealers are expecting the demand to further rise in the coming days. However, most of them believe that the price may not see further hike. “We are expecting a normal supply in the coming days and the prices are likely to dilute,” they said. In the meanwhile, coriander that was available at a price of Rs 90-100 per kg in the whole sale market in the last week, saw a price of Rs 90-100 per kg on Sunday. Methi prices jumped from Rs 50-60 kg to Rs 80 per kg during the same period. Earlier lady finger was available at Rs 15 per kg but on Sunday went up to Rs 30-40 per kg. All other varieties saw a similar hike.