Vegetable prices head further north

AHMEDABAD: Vegetable prices in general have increased by 10-15% in the last 12 days but the prices of tomato and potato have shot up by around 25% even in the wholesale market.
Officials of the agricultural produce market committee (APMC) at Jamalpur said that the price of tomato, which was in the range of Rs 25-34 a kg on July 9, had increased to Rs 40-60 per kg.Even in the retail market, where it was selling at Rs 50 per kg, the price of tomato had increased to Rs 80.
In wholesale, good quality potato which was priced at Rs 16 earlier is now selling at Rs 21 a kg. The officials further said that prices of medium and high-quality onion had remained relatively stable in the last fortnight. It was selling at Rs 10 -23 a kg on July 9 after which its price had increased to Rs 12.50 to Rs 22 a kg in the wholesale market.
Chilli prices, however, had increased from Rs 30 to Rs 70 a kg in the retail market.
Usually, vegetable prices increase slightly during monsoon. This year, however, due to the delay in the onset of monsoon, vegetable prices had shot up by almost 50% in the retail market as compared to this time last year. In the wholesale market, prices had increased by 15-20% as compared to 2013. According to APMC officials, the prices of brinjal and cabbage were the only ones not to have registered an increase.
Nisha Patel, a resident of Jodhpur, said, "Vegetables are expensive not only in retail but also in wholesale. Due to their high prices in retail, I had gone to Kalupur and purchased vegetables for the entire week. But the prices were high there too." Patel further said that last year Rs 1,000-1,200 was enough to pay of vegetables for a whole month but this year it was difficult to buy the same vegetables for Rs 2,000.