HYDERABAD: The unexpected week-long rains that lashed Telangana in October has resulted in the retail prices of onions touching Rs 60 per kilogram in the city. Sri Krupa Market at Malakpet that used to witness over 100 vehicles of onions and other vegetables now has only 40 to 50 vehicles coming in. Onion traders cite low supply as the root cause for the price rise. “I have stopped stocking vegetables for a while. If I buy them in large quantities at a higher price, I have to sell them for a high price too. People will not buy and the vegetables go waste,” said Mohammad Imran, a vegetable seller in BS Maktha, Begumpet.
“We are witnessing a drop in the number of trucks carrying onions and other vegetables to the market,” said Parmesh, a member of Onion Traders Association at Sri Krupa Market at Malakpet. The losses faced by farmers due to rains in October has resulted in the drop in supply to the city, he added.The state’s agriculture department reported that over 1,13,000 farmers in the State were affected due to the rains in October, which recorded over 100 mm in several parts of the State, higher than the yearly average. This resulted in 98,000 hectares of farmland reporting cross losses.
Tulsi hotel source their vegetables from Secunderabad vegetable market. “We serve Bengali dishes and many of our customers request for chopped raw onions and we cannot say no to them,” said Tanmay M, the hotel owner. The hotel now serves onion only on demand. “The price of other vegetables too have gone up,” he added. The retail prices of beans, tomato, ladies finger, carrot have all witnessed a jump in prices ranging from `10 to `15. ‘’Earlier we used to sell two raw bananas for `15, now we sell one for `10,” said another vegetable seller.