Vegetable prices to shoot up in coming days

Greens may not be available for a week from now

Besides essential vegetables like onion, tomato and potato, greens are the most affected crops this season, according to Horticultural Producers’ Co-operative Marketing and Processing Society Ltd (Hopcoms) president B V Chikkanna.

“Greens that grow in a short period of 30 to 45 days have all withered away due to the poor weather conditions in the last 15 days. The crops were damaged mainly because of the cyclonic effect that has returned after disappearing for a few days. The change of weather has affected crop yield,” he said.

Prices of greens like spinach (palak), coriander (kothambari), mint leaves (pudina), amaranthus (dantu), dill leaves (Sabbakki soppu) and chakotha soppu have doubled in the last fortnight.

Exhausted stocks

Chikkanna said greens were mainly grown in Bangalore Rural and Kolar regions which supply a major portion of the crop to the City. Stocks have been exhausted and farmers are unable to sow any seeds in the last two weeks. If the weather remains cold and cloudy, greens, especially coriander leaves, might not be available for a week’s time, he said.

Prices of onion, carrot and beans have all doubled and are expected to rise further. Due to heavy rain in Bellary and Chitradurga early this month, onion crops have been destroyed.

“There are four types of onions — small, medium, large and economy size. There is some stock of the economy variety which will hit the market shortly,” Chikkanna said.

Prices of tomato, carrot, radish, cauliflower, pointed gourd (Thondekai) and green chillies are also expected to rise, he added.