— Photo: K. Pichumani
TOO DEAR: Stalls at the Koyambedu wholesale market in Chennai.
CHENNAI: The rain over the past few days may have brought some relief from the soaring temperature, but it has also led to a spurt in vegetable prices that is upsetting the budget of many households.
Wholesale vendors at Koyambedu attribute it to the decline in the arrivals from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, hit by torrential rain for ten days now. As a result, the prices of staple vegetables such as tomatoes, onions and potatoes have gone up by at least Rs.3 a kg.
Tomatoes, sold between Rs.16 and Rs.18 a kg last week, now cost Rs.20 a kg in wholesale at the Koyambedu market. The onion price has increased by Rs.4, to Rs.12 a kg. Similarly, the cost of a kg of potatoes has shot up to Rs.12 a kg, against Rs.9 last week. Beans cost Rs.20 a kg, carrot Rs.12 and green peas Rs.80 a kg. The prices of a few vegetables, including brinjal and cabbage, however, have remained stable at Rs.6 and Rs. 5 a kg.
Koyambedu MMC Licence Holders’ Merchants Association secretary V.R. Soundararajan said vegetable arrivals at the market had dropped to almost half.
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