PANAJI: Prices of most greens in the retail market have dropped slightly with the onset of favourable weather. However, a key cooking ingredient, the onion, still continues to be in short supply. Selling at Rs 90-100 per kg until a few weeks ago, the bulbs are now going at Rs 70 per kg. Vegetable suppliers said that it may take another month or so for the rates to stabilise.
“After the recent harvest was destroyed due to torrential rain in Maharashtra, we are relying on the fresh winter crop to hit the market. Only then can we expect onion prices to lower. We are in touch with farmers and winter crops are growing well we have been informed. After they are harvested in December-January, we can expect an increase in quantity and subsequently lower prices,” a vegetable supplier from Belagavi, Ramesh Pawale, said.
He said that the prices of onions in the Belagavi markets is also Rs 70 per kg. Potato prices are slowly increasing, but the quantity of chilli is beginning to thin, Pawale said.
In the Panaji municipal market, potatoes are going at Rs 50 per kg, while chillies are priced at Rs 80 per kg.
Rising vegetable prices have been pinching the common man’s pocket. While some have started purchasing fewer quantities of greens compared to before the price rise, others who have been hit hard due to the pandemic have been selling vegetables on credit.
Vegetable vendor Hyder Ali said that he has no choice but to comply with his buyers. “Nearly everyone is facing a financial crunch these days. Faced with this situation, when our regular customers insist on taking vegetables home with the promise of paying later, we don’t discourage them,” he said.
Some buyers, however, continue to remain optimistic in the face of fluctuating prices that the rates will eventually lower.
“We moved from a fish and meat diet to a vegetarian one due to the pandemic. The prices are only increasing with each passing day, but one can only hope that the prices will lower soon,” a senior citizen from Panaji, Francisco Fernandes, said.