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Higher vegetable prices eat into family budget

— Photo: K. Pichumani

TURNING PRECIOUS: Customers have been buying relatively less quantity of vegetables in recent weeks in the face of soaring prices.

CHENNAI: Home-makers will find it difficult to resort to the easy-to-make tomato rice for a meal, at least for some time to come. With the price of the commonly-used vegetable shooting up to Rs. 60 a kg in many retail markets in the city, most customers had to be content with a small quantity despite paying higher price.

P.Subhashini of Ashok Nagar said, “I now buy only half the quantity of the weekly requirement of vegetables. I manage cooking with potatoes and onions that are the only vegetables available for nominal price.”

The increase in the price of most vegetables, including cabbage that is usually cheap, had also hit the business of small hotels and roadside eateries.

M. A. Meenakshi Sundaram, who runs a fast food joint in Anna Nagar, said: “We stopped offering meals in our joint for the past one month, as we could not afford to buy vegetables at such high rates anymore.”

Several small hoteliers in Aminjikarai and Nungambakkam said that variety rice dishes were being offered at a higher price ranging from Rs.18 to Rs.20 now.

However, the price could not be increased further for fear of losing regular customers.

Vendors in the Koyambedu market said crop failure following heavy rain in the neighbouring States, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, led to poor arrivals and low quality vegetables to the market.

M.Thiyagarajan, president of Chennai Koyambedu Periyar Market Tomato Traders Association, said the price of tomatoes had increased phenomenally in the past one decade.

A box consisting of 15 kg of tomatoes was sold at Rs. 450 on Tuesday. The cost was about Rs. 330 a box in 1998.

“The price hike has been unusually high this month. A kg of tomatoes is sold at Rs.40 (hybrid) and Rs.35 (local) in the wholesale market,” he said. Most of the vegetables usually priced below Rs.10 a kg were sold at higher prices owing to fewer arrivals. For instance, brinjals were sold at Rs. 20-Rs.25 a kg wholesale on Tuesday owing to poor arrivals from Andhra Pradesh and Kumbakonam. The wholesale prices of onion and potato, being sold at Rs. 15 and Rs. 12 respectively, come as a consolation to customers.

Francis Ponraj, a retail vendor in Koyambedu, said that several customers bought only half their usual purchase because of escalating prices. Some of the expensive vegetables include carrots (Rs.48/kg), beans (Rs.40/kg) and cabbage (Rs.28/kg). “I have little option but to increase the price as I have to cover the cost of transportation and the damaged vegetables,” he said.

The cost of rice has also been witnessing an increase over the past few months. Quality rice is priced between Rs.30 and Rs.35 a kg. D. Thulasingam, president of Federation of Tamil Nadu Rice Mill Owners and Paddy Rice Dealers Association, said the hike in price in the past one month was only marginal. With the influx of new rice stocks from Andhra Pradesh the rates would drop.

He said that ‘Bapatla’ variety of raw rice was priced at Rs.1,230 for a 75-kg bag whereas new rice was available at Rs.1,040 for the same quantity. Rice varieties such as K-13, NLR and Deluxe Adhisiya Ponni were available in the price range of Rs. 16.50 to Rs.21.

M.Jayapalan, vice-president, Redhills Paddy and Rice Wholesale Merchants Association, said there was no adequate power for processing paddy. “Earlier we used to sun dry the paddy. It has now become mechanised leading to an increase in power consumption. The cost of processing one kg of rice has increased from Re.1 to Rs. 2 now.”

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