The Hindu : No shortage of vegetables, prices stabilise

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 24, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

No shortage of vegetables, prices stabilise

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 23. Ten days into the truckers' strike, vegetable prices have more or less stabilised in the market and there is no shortage as such. However, the demand for vegetables, which plummeted in the first few days of the strike when prices shot up sky-high, has not picked up, traders said.

Eggs and poultry are in short supply in the city. Eggs are normally brought by Tamil Nadu traders themselves into the State and after the strike began, there has been no egg supply to the city, traders said.

They fear that even if the strike were to end soon, the stock of eggs reaching the city would be more than ten days old, and could give rise to complaints from consumers.

Following reports that sugar is in short supply in city shops and that prices too have gone up, Supplyco has made arrangements for the distribution of levy sugar through ration shops. Sugar is also being sold at Rs. 12.70 per kg through Supplyco outlets. Officials said that since all sugar factories were connected by rail, there was no need to depend on lorries to bring in fresh stock.

Vegetables continued to arrive in Chalai market, in trains and buses, though the number of loads have come down drastically. Prices at Chalai market continue to be higher than that at several retail outlets in the city.

Tomato, carrot, beans, yam and cauliflower are the expensive items in the market now. Carrots and beans, which were about Rs. 28.30/kg when the strike began, are now being sold at Rs. 22/kg, while tomato is being sold at Rs. 20. But the truckers' stir apart, the prices of these items are generally high during this season, traders said.

The price of locally procured vegetables like cucumber and cowpea have remained low. According to traders, the price hike is mainly due to the transportation and loading/unloading charges, which have gone up by five times since the strike began.

Meanwhile, market intervention attempts by the Government seem to be paying off. Both Horticorp and Supplyco have been procuring vegetables for the district from the markets in Tamil Nadu. These are being sold through 112 outlets of Horticorp and 26 outlets of Supplyco, including the supermarkets, Maveli and Labham shops in the district.

Supplyco sources said that though vegetables were being made available at low prices through their outlets, the offtake was very less. Apart from `hard' vegetables like potato and onion and tomato, which is expensive in the open market, consumers do not seem to be keen on buying vegetables.

Meanwhile, Milma officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the inter-State movement of tanker lorries carrying liquid milk would not be affected. Milma has been bringing in over 1.6 lakh litres of milk daily from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. So far, except for a stray incident when two of their tanker lorries were attacked near Walayar on Saturday, milk supply has remained normal.

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