Patna: Prices of veggies low as many hotels and hostels still remain closed

PATNA: Even though economic and business activities have started picking up gradually in the state, the negative impact of coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown continues to cast their malevolent shadow on the vegetable market. The vegetable prices are still at an all-time low.
But the low prices have benefited neither the farmers nor the middlemen or wholesale traders. For example, a farmer sells lady finger at Rs2/kg to a wholesaler or middleman, who sells it to the retailer at Rs10/kg. The retailer sells it to general customers at Rs15-20/kg.
As the supply chain has been somewhat restored, onions and potato have been coming from outside the state, but the demand curve has remained flat, rather tilted down.
All this because bulk vegetable purchasers like hotels, restaurants, roadside dhabas, guesthouses and hostels are closed. Also, Patna has remained deprived of its daily intake of floating population on which the small restaurants and roadside dhabas used to sustain.
Even the general retail customers have yet to overcome the shock that the financial crisis the lockdown inflicted on their sentiments and the market, resulting in the pulling of the purse strings and low consumption of vegetables, no matter if they are available at low prices.
“Traditionally, vegetable business of Patna is dependent on the performance of hotels, hostels, dhabas and daily customers in residential areas. Things are yet to become normal,” said Suresh Sah, a vegetable vendor from Lalganj in Vaishali district and in the retail vegetable business for the last 10 years.
“Even last year the vegetable prices were in Rs40-60/kg range around this time. Today, the prices are just around half,” said Satish Kumar Yadav, who has been in this business at Kidwaipuri since 1986.
In some localities on Friday, pumpkin was selling at Rs10-20/kg, ‘nenua’ Rs16/, brinjal Rs30/kg, local cucumber Rs30/kg, tomato Rs24/kg, ‘parwal’ Rs20/kg and ‘bhindi (ladyfinger) at Rs20/kg.
However, around the closing time, the prices crash to even half of the going rates for the day. “I drastically reduce the prices of green vegetables around 7pm to sell most of them and empty my stock,” said Munna Kumar at S K Nagar.