Ahmedabad: Veggie prices skyrocket as official APMC trading stops

AHMEDABAD: The Agricultural Produce Market Committee, Ahmedabad, has stopped the official trade of vegetables and this has hit kitchen budgets. Traders of APMC Jamalpur, who were operating from a makeshift place in Jetalpur, have now been stopped from operating there as well.
The Jamalpur APMC was closed for fear of the spread of Covid as there was not enough space to maintain distancing.

In absence of official business, farmers are being denied proper prices for their produce while vendors are increasing the prices for customers, citing short supply of vegetables.
A trader who asked not to be named said that since August 1 trading was being done outside the Jetalpur APMC premises. On August 18, local residents threatened traders and demanded they not to operate from the road there.
It was then that office-bearers of the Ahmedabad Vegetable General Commission Agent Cooperative Society decided to stop the trade. A trader said that without official business, farmers are coming to the Ring Road and several unorganized markets have cropped up where they sell their their produce. He said bottle gourd was sold in these markets for Rs 6 to Rs 10 but in the retail market it is going for more than Rs 80.
He said that without official trade, vendors are increasing prices arbitrarily and vegetables like brinjal are selling for up to Rs 100 a kilo, and on grocery apps they are selling for about Rs 66. Another trader said, “We are willing to accept any condition for trading. For instance, at night we can only permit farmers and during the day we can call vendors from different areas by allotting them time slots.”
Senior officials in the AMC said they were not willing to permit vegetable trade at Jamalpur till Covid-19 is contained in the city.