Vegetable prices crash as wholesalers fear spoilage

The incessant rains since Thursday, which intensified on Friday spelt trouble for vegetable vendors in the city. Water-logging prevented a majority of them from reaching the Koyambedu wholesale market, which led to the piling up of these of essential, perishable commodities. Left without an option, the wholesalers decided to slash the prices of all but a few vegetables by up to 50 per cent.

S Chandran, the President of the Koyambedu Vegetable Wholesale Merchants Association tells us, “Because of the rains, only a handful of retailers turned up at the market today. All the trucks carrying the goods were here as usual but we had no buyers. We have been able to sell only half of the produce that came in today. The remaining 50 per cent will go waste if the rains continue this way.”

He adds, “As a last resort, we decided to cut down the wholesale prices of many vegetables. The wholesale prices of green leafy vegetables have been cut by 50 per cent. Whatever we have left in stock are goods that were drenched in the rains and we have no place to store them. Across Chennai, the loss in business because of damaged produce is in crores.”

Service providers in the food sector were also affected by these rains. Mansi Pandey, the co-founder of Foody Palace, an aggregator service says, “We were able to cater to our regular customers with a slight delay. But we had no new customers for the day. Owing to a shortage of delivery staff, we took it upon ourselves to deliver the orders placed today.”