Comments
The cash crisis has hit vegetable trading in the State as thin buying has led to prices heading south despite fresh stocks streaming into key markets.
Trade sources at one of the largest APMC markets in the State say prices have fallen 30-50 per cent since demonetisation was announced on November 8.
“Vegetable farmers have no choice but to harvest the crop as soon as it is ready and bring it to the market. But there is very thin buying due to lack of cash with the buyers. Stocks have piled up and prices have fallen,” said Mukesh Modi, a leading vegetable trader and a Director at Sardar Patel APMC in Jamalpur.
The wholesale prices of some of the major vegetables, including brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, bottle gourd and green chilli have fallen close to 50 per cent.
Chilli prices were the worst hit suffering a 50 per cent fall from ₹1,600 per quintal to ₹800. Similarly, cauliflower prices too have halved from ₹1,000 a quintal to ₹500 since November 7.
“We thought we will get a good price for cauliflower, but it is fetching half of what it was ten days ago,” said a farmer from Sabarkantha district.
“Traders and commission agents are very worried because of lack of buying. We can’t store this produce beyond a day. This is a challenging situation and we can only hope that with improved liquidity we will see better days ahead,” said Sandip Thakkar, a wholesale vegetable trader.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.