Hyderabad, May 15: City folks in the last few days are being oppressed by the heat generated not just by the cruel summer but also by the soaring vegetable prices with chillies becoming too hot to handle at Rs 50 a kg. More bad news: just as weathermen predicted the hot spell to stretch for a few more days, rythu bazar officials forecast the vegetable prices to rule high for at least a couple of weeks or… till the monsoon sets in! Scorching temperatures since the first week of May have resulted in vegetable prices shooting through the roof, with rates doubling at government- run rythu bazars and other markets.
Tomatoes are being sold for Rs 20 a kg, cluster beans Rs 35, ribbed gourd Rs 28 kg while green chillies touched Rs 50 a kg. Tomatoes had been going at Rs 6 a kg in the last week of April. At government-run rythu bazars, tomato prices rose from Rs 8 a kg to Rs 18 in a matter of a few days.
Prices of vegetables like beans, ribbed gourd, lady’s finger and capsicum normally increase during the summer but they have scaled new heights this year. Cluster beans were selling at Rs 18 a kg till last week, but retail sellers have now hiked the price to Rs 35 per kg.
Green chillies have shot up from Rs 15 per kg in the last week of April to Rs 50 now. Prices of ginger also shot up by Rs 5 (from Rs 60 to Rs 65) in just a week.
SM Hashmi, assistant director, marketing of Ranga Reddy district rythu bazars, told expresso that the price rise was on account of water scarcity that had hit the crops this summer.
“More than 80 percent of the produce supplied to the rythu bazars in the city comes from Ranga Reddy district while the rest comes from Medak.
Vegetable production was also affected by extensive power cuts in rural areas. The high prices are likely to continue for at least two more weeks until the monsoon enters the State,” he said.
“I bought potatoes for Rs 16 a kg last Sunday.
Today they are Rs 35. I expected some price hike as summer advances but this is abnormal,” felt Kiran, a shopper at the Erragadda rythu bazar.
With supply of vegetables, especially tomatoes, onions and green chillies from Kurnool too severely hit, vendors are forced to increase the prices. Onions, for example, are being sold at Rs 25 against Rs 14 earlier in the week. “We got supplies with great difficulty on Thursday and we have no other choice but to increase the prices,” said M Ranganath Rao, a wholesaler who shelled out Rs 2,000 for a quintal of onions.
–Agencies