COVID-19 lockdown: Vegetable prices soar across India

The onset of summer and supply disruptions caused by COVID-19 related lockdown has sent the retail prices of vegetables, including potato and onion soaring.

Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai have been witnessing upto 40% hike in seasonal vegetables like tomato, spinach, ladyfinger and capsicum. More perishable gourds are selling three times costlier. Retail prices of tomato, ladyfinger, cabbage or beans has gone up by 30 to 35%.

Onion prices, particular are staring at a bigger jump once again across the country as Mumbai’s Lasalgaon, which is the largest onion producing and selling hub, has suspended its auction for an unlimited period.

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"Onion, potatoes and vegetable market is going through a difficult phase," said Deepak Chavan, an expert on commodities and vegetable market. The institutional procurement like that by hotels and craterers has stopped due to the lockdown" he said, adding that the sales in retail market have just halved.

The APMC in Navi Mumbai, the biggest market that was shut last week, is now starting - and will ease the situation. Vegetable vendors in Mumbai's suburbs said that trucks and vans containing vegatables are coming from Nashik and Pune.

India’s biggest wholesale fruit and vegetable market has for the first time, introduced shifts system to sell vegetables and fruits in order to avoid crowing of the market place. Vegetables will now be sold from 6 am to 11 am while fruits will be sold from 2 pm to 6 pm till the COVID-19 related lockdown.

Most of the vendors, who sell both, have been finding it difficult to manage. The commutation woes are adding to their problems.

In Uttar Pradesh, the state government has imposed a ban on the entry of retail buyers in wholesale vegetable markets as a result of which the vendors have jacked up the prices. There is also a shortage of vegetables in the market owing to the disruption in the movement of trucks.

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Surprisingly, Eastern India is not witnessing any unusual spike in vegetable prices as of now. In fact, in Kolkata, the supply of vegetables has improved, according to the vegetable traders association.

Mehboob Ali, the wholesale trader at Patna’s Rajendra Nagar Sabji Mandi says while there has been huge production of seasonal vegetables, the demand is depleting with each passing day. This could be due to lesser demand from restaurants and hotels, where bulk of vegetables are supplied. (With inputs from Annapurna Singh, Abhay Kumar, Soumya Das)