JOIN USThe Centre’s claim of curbing rise in food and vegetable prices does not seem to hold water as a survey shows that in the past one year, vegetable prices dropped only in wholesale markets while the common man ended up paying more as retail rates remained high.
Prices of some of the essential vegetables like onion, brinjal, ginger, okra, tomato, cauliflower and cabbage dropped in 2014-15 in the wholesale mandis, but their rates for households rose rather sharply, according to data captured research of by industry body Assocham.
The survey covers 30 markets in India. These include Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhopal, Guwahati, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nasik, Patna and Pune among others.
The study warns that unseasonal rains in recent weeks have increased the chances of a further hike in the prices of essential commodities.
It said 60 per cent of mustard and lentil production was affected by unseasonal rain in Madhya Pradesh.
In Maharashtra, more than 50 per cent of sorghum crop was hit.
In Gujarat, wheat, mango and cumin were damaged. In Telangana, turmeric, onion and sunflower were affected.
It also showed a wide gap between Wholesale Price Index inflation and the level measured by the Consumer Price Index, pointing towards supply chain inefficiencies and too many layers of traders and vendors.
The survey said onion prices dropped by a good 32 per cent in 2014-15 over the previous year in the wholesale mandis, but in the retail market, these were sold at 28.9 per cent higher prices.
Likewise, the retail prices of other vegetables moved in the opposite direction to their price tags in the wholesale markets.
These included ginger which increased by 16.4 per cent at retail, after dropping by over 18 per cent at the wholesale, brinjal rates increased by 15.4 per cent at retail against decline of 18.9 per cent in the wholesale, okra shot up by 11 per cent at retail. Tomato was up 10.5 per cent in retail but down by 10.7 per cent in wholesale.
On an average, wholesale price of vegetables have declined by 6.8 per cent during 2014-15 as against 2013-14, but the problem lies at the retail level where the drop is not reflected.
Overall, the gap between consumer and wholesale price inflation has recorded upward trend during 2014-15 as compared to the previous year.
Stark picture
* Unseasonal rain likely to stoke up inflation in the near future
* Lack of basic infrastructure aggravates farmers’ problems as supply of vegetables to market is affected
* 10.67 million hectares of rabi crops (about 17-18 per cent of the total cultivated area) hit by unseasonal rain and hailstorms
* Loss expected to hurt the output of wheat, pulses, fruits and vegetables in coming months