Vadodara: Lemon prices skyrocket as Covid spurs demand

VADODARA: Having that chilled glass of lemon juice may leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Over last 10 days, prices of lemons have shot through the roof. The citrus fruit is being sold at Rs 160 to Rs 200 per kg in the retail market for a fortnight, which is three times its normal price.
“Last month, the lemons were being sold at about Rs 40 to Rs 50 per kg but the prices have shot up suddenly. The demand for lemons has gone up after the spike in Covid cases and the supply isn’t enough,” said Daxesh Patel, a retail vegetable vendor operating from Sayajipura market.
“People are buying lemons in bulk to make juice,” he said.
Vegetable vendors said that on an average hundreds of kg of lemons are being sold in the city within a few hours. “A vegetable vendor is selling about 40 kg of lemons in a day in the market. Sometimes, we run out of stock by noon, so we have started to place bigger orders from the wholesaler. Due to sudden increase in Covid cases, people are stocking up lemons,” said Kamalkant Patel, a vendor in Khanderao Market.
“In this season, we have to buy lemons from other states as the local supply is less. We can’t meet the high demand immediately as it takes time for the supply to reach here. So the prices of lemons have gone up sharply,” Patel added.