Kolkata: After onions and sugar, vegetables are turning dearer, tightening the squeeze on household budgets. Retail prices of several vegetables have risen by 17% to 100% in barely 10 days, with cucumber recording the steepest jump — from Rs 40 a kg on Sept 1 to Rs 80 a kg on Wednesday.Market sources blamed the surge on crop damage and waterlogging after spells of heavy rain across vegetable-growing belts in south Bengal. Vegetables retrieved from inundated fields are often of inferior quality and have a shorter shelf life, reducing the volume of marketable produce even when supply appears to be adequate. “Moreover, the festive period has already begun and most retailers are trying their best to enhance their margin of profit, despite regular enforcement branch raids across the markets,” said a market insider at Koley Market.Ridged gourd, which sold for around Rs 60 a kg at the beginning of the month, is now priced at Rs 80 per kg, while bitter gourd has jumped from Rs 60 to Rs 80-100 a kg. The cost of Brinjal has climbed from Rs 60 to Rs 80, while tomato and okra are now being sold from Rs 40 to Rs 60 per kg. Long beans now cost around Rs 80 a kg against the previous price of Rs 60 a kg. Pointed gourd has seen a relatively moderate increase in price, from Rs 60 to Rs 70 a kg.“For a family of four, vegetables alone are now taking away a substantially bigger portion of the daily food budget. Earlier, Rs 200 would get us enough vegetables for two to three days. Now the same amount barely fills a shopping bag,” said Anirban Basak of Behala.Retailers said the problem was not merely a decline in arrival of fresh supplies but also the quality of produce reaching the markets.“We have to discard much more than usual because vegetables coming from waterlogged fields rot quickly,” said Manik Mandal, a vegetable seller at Behala market. “Customers see the higher price, but they don’t see how much stock we are throwing away,” he rued. Wholesalers said reduced local production has also forced traders to bring vegetables from more distant growing areas, adding up to the transportation and handling costs. “Continuous rain and waterlogging damaged standing crops and delayed the next round of harvesting in several growing belts. Fresh Supplies are reaching the markets, but good-quality vegetables are relatively scarce,” said Durga Charan Das, a trader at Koley Market.Traders said the journey from farm to neighbourhood market involves several stages, including aggregation, wholesale trading, transportation and retailing. According to them, losses and margins at each stage can widen the difference between wholesale and retail prices. The vegetable spike comes when households are already grappling with higher prices of other kitchen items.
