While inflation affects all aspects of life, the heat of it is mostly felt by customers while buying their daily vegetables and fruits. With weather playing spoilsport, the prices of most vegetables in the city have shot up by over 50% in the last two weeks. The likes of tomato and beans have breached the ₹100 mark at retail markets.
Although monsoons arrived in the state in the second week of June, there is a deficit. This has led to the temperatures continuing to remain high in the vegetable growing regions around the city, which has led to the wilting of crops, according to traders and farmers.
“There has not been much rainfall yet and there is a considerable amount of heat around. If the temperature is above 30 degrees during this harvest season, then it is not good for vegetable crops. Due to this, the yield has reduced, and it has resulted in a supply crunch at the markets in the city. Hence, the prices of some vegetables have doubled in the last two weeks,” explained Manjunath, a wholesale trader from K.R. Market.
Tomatoes, which were being sold at just ₹40 to ₹50 a couple of weeks ago are now being sold at ₹110 to ₹120 per kg at retail markets. Similarly, beans, which are always the first vegetable whose prices climb up have gone from ₹60 to ₹70 per kg to ₹110 to ₹140 at the retail market and are being sold for around ₹70 per kg at the wholesale market. Carrots and capsicums are also being sold at around ₹80 per kg at retail markets.
Brinjals are being sold at ₹50 to ₹60 per kg, while lady’s finger is priced around ₹40 to ₹50 per kg, and the price of knol khol (kohlrabi), which is usually between ₹30 to ₹35 per kg, has gone up to ₹50 even at the wholesale market and around ₹50 to ₹60 at retail marts.
With a lot of fluctuation in weather, the crops have also been susceptible to diseases, farmers reported. “Along with sudden changes in weather have come frequent virus attacks. The quality has taken a hit due to difficulty in disease management. There are a lot of pesticides and fungicides being used and sometimes, in vain. There is also the problem of water contamination at some vegetable growing areas,” said Anjaneya Reddy, a farmer from Kolar region.
Mr. Reddy also pointed out that the shot-up prices do not mean profits to the farmers. “Not much is coming into farmer’s hands as middlemen are taking complete advantage of the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, with the price of other commodities like fruits and flowers, rice, tur dal, and other food grains going up, consumers are finding no respite. “The cost of cooking in every household is growing by around 10% every month now. While some compromises can be made with other commodities, vegetarians cannot compromise with vegetables. Currently, except for cabbage, every other vegetable in the market is expensive,” said Rekha S., a homemaker.
