Orissa, October 06: Devastating floods in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka coupled with the private bus operators strike in Orissa have led to a steep rise in the prices of vegetables in Orissa.
The prices of almost all vegetables in Berhampur, the biggest commercial town of the southern Orissa, have increased about 50 to 70% during the past week, vegetable sellers said.
The farmers of Ganjam, Kandhamal, Rayagada and Gajapati districts supply vegetables to Berhampur market in passenger buses. With the bus services hit due to the strike, the supply to Berhampur market has drastically reduced leading to price rise, a vegetable seller at Gate Bazar vegetable market said.
The soaring prices are also due to the disruption in the supply line of vegetables like onion, tomato, cabbage and cauliflower, which regularly come from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The supply from the southern states have almost stopped since last week leading to soaring prices, he said.
“As the onion crop was damaged in Andhra Pradesh and the supply was almost stopped from the state, we are now depending only on Maharastra”, president of Ganjam Chamber of Commerce Rabindra Kumar, said.
This has almost doubled the price of onion in the market, another wholesale onion businessman Binod Sahu said. The price of the best quality onion in retail market in Berhampur ruled between Rs24 to Rs27 per kg, while the wholesale price at Rs22 per kg.
The average price of vegetables in different markets in Berhampur are : brinjal (Rs12 to Rs16), cauliflower (Rs30 to Rs45), tomato (Rs15 to Rs25), cabbage (Rs12 to Rs20), pumpkin (Rs10), potato (Rs18 to Rs22), bitter gourd (Rs20 to Rs25), ridge gourd(Rs12 to Rs18) per kg.
—PTI