No road user on Pudukottai Road would miss noticing a group of women selling seasonal produce throughout the year. Whether it rains or shines, they sell some produce or other catering to the needs of the consumers. With competition looming large, they fix a fair sale price for the produce registering a marginal profit. The produce they sell ranges from cucumber in summer to groundnut in winter.
Iniyanallur is the village from where they purchase the cucumber. The harvest of the fruit has been brisk in the village for the past one month. The women squat on the road over bridge on Pudukottai Road, each separated by about 10 metres. They gently target the two-wheeler riders pointing one of their hands towards the fruit basket, a signal to woo the customers.
They not only market the produce under the scorching sun but work overtime to purchase fruits at Iniyanallur. “We visit the village in the early morning at about 5 a.m. Each one of us purchase at least 25 fruits,” says S. Rani who has been in the trade for the past two decades.
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She says that they have adapted themselves to hot waves and biting cold. While the average cost price is about Rs.50 a fruit, its sale price, after hard bargain, ranges between Rs. 70 and Rs. 80, she says.
This is a perishable fruit and should be sold on the same day, say K. Banumathy and V. Akilambal, a few other traders indicating the loss they incur at times.