Surplus rainfall spikes supply of veggies, hits price

TIRUCHY: Due to heavy flow of vegetables from other states and neighbouring districts, prices of vegetables have plummeted in the markets in the Rock City.

Traders said that the influx of vegetables is on the rise leading to the fall in prices of native vegetables on Friday.

According to traders in the Gandhi Market here, in addition to the heavy loads of beetroot, brinjal, beans, radish, tomato, potato, cauliflower and cabbage, which are usually brought to Tiruchy market, an abundance of supply of native vegetables like tomato, bringa and drumsticks have led to a heavy fall in prices.

Usually, tomatoes arrive from Bengaluru but currently, these are also coming from local areas like Manapparai, Karur and the neighbouring districts. And thus, they were sold at Rs 5-6 per kg till Friday.

“A few wholesale tomato merchants have closed their shops because of the price-drop. We hope the prices increase in the next few days,” said Sathish Kumar, a retail vegetable vendor from Gandhi Market. “On Friday, drumsticks were sold at Rs 15-25/kg. Last week, it was Rs 70-80/kg. This is due to the arrival of loads from Andipatti, Ariyalur, Mettupalayam and Karur.”

Agribusiness marketing officials said that though it was usual at this time, prices of vegetables have been very low this year. “Decline in prices is due to good rainfall in State and desired yields. Farmers reaped rich harvests, and this led to the fall in prices of vegetables.”