With the stocks dwindling and prices rising by the day, traders of electronic goods in the city are worried over their businesses that are heavily dependent on imports from Covid 19-hit China.
The coronavirus epidemic has impacted the retail and wholesale trade of electronic goods across the country and the city is no exception as the traders here source their products from Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and other port cities.
“The dealers who import electronic goods have hiked the prices of many products by 50% citing fall in exports from China since the outbreak of the virus. We are being asked to pay for an LCD screen, worth ₹1,000 a month ago, ₹1,500 now at Mumbai. We will not be able to sell them at this price,” said Sayyapreddy Nagaraju, a dealer of LCD screens, sound systems and other products at NTR Complex.
Many other traders who sell electronic products including mobile accessories, TVs, audio systems and computer peripherals are facing a similar situation.
Several blows
Amaravati Digital Electronics Dealers Welfare Association (ADEDWA) treasurer Sivalinga Prasad said that continuation of this situation for another couple of months or more would take a heavy toll on their businesses. “The electronic goods trade was badly hit by a series of issues since demonetisation and this (Covid-19 outbreak) is the latest to trouble us,” he said.
ADEDWA vice-president P. Venugopal said that they were caught in a fix as they were heavily dependent on imported products supplied by nationwide dealers. “We cannot trust business-to-business e-commerce websites to get products directly from China as the quality of the products and their delivery are uncertain,” he added.
The NTR Complex and Arundal Municipal Corporation Complex in the city house over 200 electronic goods shops and is the hub of Chinese products.