Downpour drives up veg, fruit prices
Prices of tomatoes, which have been going up since June touched ₹240 a kg on Wednesday in retail markets of Delhi.
New Delhi: Retail prices of perishables, especially vegetables, have risen steeply in northern India after extremely heavy rain lashed Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab, disrupting supplies since Friday. While fruit prices have shot up 10-30% in the last 5-6 days, vegetable prices have gone up 25-100%.
The hike in vegetable prices is expected to turn vegetable deflation into inflation, pushing up the headline inflation.
Prices of tomatoes, which have been going up since June touched ₹240 a kg on Wednesday in retail markets of Delhi. While peas have gone up to ₹300 on Wednesday from ₹160 a kg on 7 July, green chillis are being sold at ₹200 per kg, up 100% since Friday, according to vendors in Delhi.
Similarly, retail prices of cauliflower and ginger were quoted at ₹ 280 and ₹400 a kg on Wednesday, a rise of about ₹120 and ₹80, respectively in six days. Vegetable prices have been rising for about a month now, but a significant spike has come in the last few days, they said.
In the case of fruit, peach is being sold at ₹600 a kg, palm at ₹250-300 and Nainital variety of pear at around ₹450 in the wholesale markets, Vasudev, a fru
it trader at Azadpur mandi, said.
Local traders in Delhi complain about supply disruption of some vegetables like beans and broccoli. “Because of low supplies in Azadpur mandi, retail vendors are getting into fights to purchase vegetables,” said Nitish Kumar, an east Delhi based vegetable retailer.
“It took me around 3.5-4 hours today against the usual 1-1.5 hours to sort good quality vegetables.” The downpour that started on Friday has not only caused a flood-like situation in farms, affecting vegetables but also landslides, blocking transportation of vegetables and fruit from Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. “I had cultivated tomato, beans, capsicum and cauliflower across 10 acres, and within a blink of an eye the field had gone underwater.The entire Sirmour district is facing it,” said Anil Thakur, a farmer based in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. “If the rain stops in a couple of days, 10% of the produce could be recovered. Otherwise, all of it will be damaged, and the next crop will take about three months to hit the market.”
As a result, vegetable prices are seen to remain on the upswing for some time in north India and other parts of the country. However, fruit prices are unlikely to be impacted—the demand for stone fruit is less than that for vegetables and fruit trees, being larger, are able to better withstand the deluge. “Vegetables cannot be normally transported for long distances and hence floods in the north will tend to spike up prices further in the belt . However, a secondary impact is there as some part of the crop is diverted when prices increase in any region. This will cause some upward pressure on vegetable prices but the overall price impact could be 3-4% year-on-year in north India,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda.
“Any disturbance in supply of vegetables will affect prices and the headline inflation as it carries around 6% weightage in the CPI,” the economist added. Retail inflation for vegetables squeezed to 0.93% in June on year from the contraction of 8.18% in May. “It is expected to turn positive by September as prices soar. Given the high base effect till September, headline inflation will remain less than 5% and move up subsequently though a lot will depend on kharif harvest and output of rice and pulses.
Replying to queries sent on Tuesday, the Department of Consumer Affairs said that it on Wednesday directed National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) to immediately procure tomatoes from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for simultaneous distribution in major consumption centres where retail prices have recorded maximum increase in the last one month. The stocks of tomato will be distributed through retail outlets at discounted prices to the consumers in Delhi-NCR region by 14 July.
In the case of Punjab, the availability of vegetables and fruits is negligible due to floods in regions such as Patiala, Mohali, Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur, Hoshiarpur, and Jalandhar.
The worst hit districts are not letting traders keep their business operational as the mandi is closed for the last 3-4 days. “In Patiala mandi, the trade size worth was around ₹1 crore each day, but there is no trade ever since the flood-like situation emerged,” said Vicki Rewaz, former head of the Sanour vegetable market in Patiala. “Though there is no rain since Tuesday and the water level has started receding, it may take some time to restore normalcy.”
Due to several landslides, trucks that are charging double or triple than usual are reaching Delhi and other northern states with a long delay. “One of my trucks containing 10 tonnes of vegetables and fruits left on Sunday finally arrived in Delhi on Wednesday morning. It usually takes 10 hours for trucks to reach Delhi from Rajgarh in Solan,” Thakur said. “Because of the delay, only 2 tonnes farm produce, including tomato, is in trading condition.”
“From ₹10,000-12,000 per truck to transport vegetables and fruits to Delhi from Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the cost has gone up to around ₹40,000-50,000,” wholesalers from Azadpur mandi said.
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First Published:13 Jul 2023, 12:07 AM IST
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