HYDERABAD: The prices of all vegetables have gone up in the last two weeks in the city, against the national trend of falling veggy prices. With summer in full swing, most vendors in the city expect the prices to skyrocket even further.
“The price rise is seasonal,” said Balu, a vegetable vendor at Begumpet. Balu, who buys his vegetable stock from Gudimalkapur Rythu Bazaar, said:
“The present rise is not due to lorry strike. There were a lot of trucks supplying vegetables to the market on Monday. Farmers are not releasing stock and there is a shortage of supply in the market,” said the vendor.
The retail price of potatoes have shot up by `4 and are now being sold for `12 a kilogram. The price of ladies finger, carrots, beans, cauliflowers too have gone up.
“Sem beans have become unaffordable for us vendors. Two days ago the price was `35 a kg but now it is selling at `50 per kg. I decided not to stock the vegetable,” said Ravindra Reddy, owner of Hindupriya Vegetable shop at Begumpet. The prices do keep changing every few weeks but a steep rise usually happens in the summer, he added.
Interestingly, the rise in potato prices in Telangana comes at a time when the prices have gone down in West Bengal and other states due to bumper crop resulting in over supply.
The Centre-owned National Horticultural Board’s data for the second half of March also showed a 25 per cent decline in wholesale vegetable prices across many states. The reason for the falling prices has been attributed to farmers rushing to sell off their stock fearing spoilage of vegetables due to summer.