Prices of big onions have seen a steady increase in the last few days here.
According to M. Rajedran, president of Thyagi Kumaran Market Vegetable Merchants’ Association, the wholesale price of onion on Thursday was ₹30 a kg as against ₹15 a kg five days ago. About three weeks ago, the average, wholesale price of onion was less than ₹10 a kg. The Maharashtra crop was over and new crop from that State was expected only by December. In Karnataka, it was reported that rain had damaged several vegetable crops. Maharashtra and Karnataka were the main suppliers of onions to Coimbatore. Hence, the prices were up.
However, there was no shortage in availability as there were no weddings now and hotels were seeing slowdown in business because of the pandemic. Further, business to Kerala had come down. Traders in Coimbatore used to sell about 600 tonnes of onions a day. Now, it was just one-fourth. The sales was largely to local buyers, he said.
Even if there was a slight increase in demand, prices may go up, he added.
Prices of many other vegetables had also increased in the last few days. The wholesale rate of small onion was ₹55 a kg and it was again because of onion growing areas affected by rain. The wholesale rate of carrot was ₹40 a kg, beans ₹70 a kg, and potato ₹35 to ₹45 a kg. Price of tomato was going up and it was ₹45 a kg on Thursday, he said.
