BHUBANESWAR: Prices of garlic have touched the sky in the past over a week. The kitchen staple on Friday sold at a retail price of Rs 400 a kg in different parts of the state, double of what it was a month back.
The wholesale price, on the other hand, hovered between Rs 350 and Rs 370 a kg across the state except Aiginia Mandi in Bhubaneswar where it was Rs 320 to Rs 330 per kg on Friday.
Low supply of garlic to the state, vendors said, has triggered the price rise since the last one month. Odisha sources garlic from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh - two of the biggest markets - besides Gujarat and Rajasthan.
The garlic crop in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh was completely damaged due to poor or unseasonal rains last year which led to extreme shortfall in supply and the delayed harvest of the new crop has only made things worse, said Shakti Shankar Mishra, general secretary of Aiginia vegetable merchant association.
“Although the rabi crop was planted again, there is a fortnight’s time for harvest. And by the time the new crop arrives in the local markets, it will be month-end,” he said.
From Aiginia, the wholesale vegetable market of the capital city, garlic is supplied to other major markets of the state like Puri, Ganjam and Gajapati.
The daily garlic requirement at Aiginia market is nearly 20 to 40 tonne. On the day, the Aiginia wholesale rate of garlic was less than other markets in the state as some new stock arrived, he added.
At Chhatra Bazaar in Cuttack, vendors are facing a dual problem. Even if they are getting low stock of garlic, most of it remains unsold due to price rise.
Chhatra Bazaar Byabasayee Sangha secretary Debendra Sahu said earlier, 40 to 50 tonne of garlic arrived at the market daily. But now, the stock has reduced to 10 to 20 tonne.
“Even then, many people are not buying because of the high price while stock is left to rot. The situation will remain the same for the next 20 to 25 days,” he said.