Flower, fruit prices soar ahead of Aadi Perukku

TIRUCHY: Flower and fruit prices soared high on Saturday ahead of Aadi Perukku festival on Sunday across the Tiruchy region, and the vendors claimed that the supply shortage was also one of the reasons for the price hike.

As anticipated, the flower prices that were nominal till Thursday in Gandhi Market, Tiruchy, started increasing from Friday, and on Saturday, the prices spiked with malligai sold at Rs 1,200 per kg, while mullai was Rs 1,000 per kg, and jathi malli sold at Rs 1,200 per kg, which was around 50 per cent higher compared to the previous week.

Besides the local cultivation, the flowers are being brought from the adjacent districts like Dindigul, Pudukkottai, Perambalur, Theni, and Coimbatore.

The traders said that they were prepared for the upcoming Aadi Perukku festival, but there was less yield than the demand, resulting in the price hike.

According to the traders at Gandhi Market, the other flower varieties like sevvanthi, pitchi, kanakambaram, and paneer rose also sold at double the price. On Saturday, sevvanthi was sold at Rs 350 per kg, while Panneer rose was sold at Rs 450 and kanagambraram at Rs 1,000 in the market.

Meanwhile, the prices of fruits also increased in the past two days ahead of the festival. On Saturday, the sevvalai banana was sold at Rs 1,000 per bunch, while nendran was at Rs 850, poovan was sold at Rs 700, and rasthali was at Rs 800 per bunch.

According to KP Palanivel, Tiruchy banana and fruit vendors’ association president, the banana arrival would be comparatively less during the month of Aadi, but this year, bananas arrived in abundance from Tiruchy rural areas, Pudukkottai, Cuddalore, and Karur. However, the prices soared due to the high demand.

“On average, we sell around 15,000 bunches of bananas of various varieties, but this time, at least 10,000 bunches were stocked in each variety, and they were sold at once due to the festival demand,” Palanivel noted.