Fall in prices of vegetables, fruits a worry for farmers

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 15

The wholesale prices of vegetables have started dipping after the restrictions on the entry of retailers in the city. Cauliflower is now selling at Rs 5 per kg, cucumber at Rs 5, beans at Rs 6, capsicum at Rs 12 and onion at Rs 11. Similar trend has been witnessed in the prices of fruits. Grapes are being sold between Rs 20-25 per kg against Rs 50 per kg prevailing earlier, while apples are being sold at Rs 40 against Rs 60 per kg earlier.

Charanjit Singh Batra, commission agent and leader of the Fruit and Vegetable Merchant Union, said the number of bidders plummeted due to limited curfew passes issued to small vendors in the city. In addition, these bidders were facing inconvenience in reaching the market and arranging tempos to ferry perishable goods.

He said the demand also fell as the wholesale market was reduced to cater to local market only. Otherwise, in this season about 20 to 25 trucks of fresh vegetables used to be transported to Jammu and Kashmir. Their sale to markets at Tarn Taran and other adjoining towns also ceased.

Kanwaljit Singh Pahwa, head, fruit section of the association, said the transportation rates had increased three times due to restrictions.

He said the government had announced reduction in market fee to 1 per cent from the earlier 4 per cent, which had not been implemented from April1. The market committee said since the department did not receive any notification in this regard they could not introduce the same.

Vegetable grower Bhupinder Singh Tirathpura, who is also a leader of the growers, said they were incurring huge losses due to lockdown.

He said due to perishable nature of fresh farm produce they did not have any other alternative but to dispose these off at negligible cost.