BENGALURU: The simple tomato rice bhat may fit less frequently in your breakfast menu now, with prices of vegetables, especially tomato, shooting up in the last one month. Rains across the country have affected supply of vegetables to Bengaluru.
Abdul Hafiz, a vegetable supplier, points out, “We get a lot of tomatoes from Nashik in Maharashtra. But due to incessant rain in that state, movement of vehicles has been affected in last one month. We see supply of close to 150 truckloads of vegetables every day, but now hardly 50 of them are arriving. Again, this is a month of marriages and functions, so a lot of supply is going there. This have invariably pushed up prices.”
Idrees Chaudhary, general secretary of Russell Market Traders’ Association says, “Even at places like Devanahalli, Kolar, Bangarpet in Karnataka, from where we get vegetables, most of the crops have been damaged by rain.”
Interestingly, for several months, tomatoes were being sold for anywhere between `7 and a maximum of `20. Consumers are perplexed with the sudden rise.
“Tomato is something that we use almost in every recipe. With the prices shooting up, it has become very difficult for middle class people like us. We cannot limit our consumption, neither is our income going high any time soon. I guess we have no other option but to bear the brunt,” said Nikhil Kumar, a software engineer.
Venkat Krishna, a manager at the online food-startup hungermeals.com in HSR Layout, points out, “We deliver meals at very affordable prices to offices and homes. With the sudden increase in vegetable prices, we cannot hike the rates of our meals. Our customers will not understand and we will end up losing them. Despite the loss, we have to serve the same quality of food to our consumers. We are hoping for prices to come down.”
A vendor at KR Market said, “A lot of vegetables like capsicum, tomato, beans and other greens have been diverted for exports this year. This too has affected supply.”However, traders are hopeful that the prices will come down in about a month’s time.
