With transport facilities, especially bus services, limited because of the spread of COVID-19 in the district, vegetable markets are seeing relatively less crowd, say traders at the markets.
Traders at Thyagi Kumaran market and Anna market say that though the markets in the district are closed on Sunday, there was not much crowd on Saturday. Further, since the lockdown was implemented in March, there are several vendors who buy vegetables from the farmers nearby and sell in vehicles in different areas. This had reduced the sales at retail shops and those traders, in turn, do not come to the market much, they say.
The demand is subdued at MGR market too, which is the main wholesale vegetable market here, say the traders.
With rain in some of the vegetable cultivation areas in Karnataka and even in Tamil Nadu, and lack of demand, the prices of vegetables have dropped. Except for tomatoes, drum stick, and broad beans (avarai), wholesale prices of other vegetables are less than ₹25 a kg. The prices of big onion is ₹12 a kg and that of small onion is between ₹10 and ₹30 a kg, the sources pointed out.
