Veggie prices seen rising on short supply :

After a lull of about a month, vegetable prices are seen rising on short supplies attributed to heavy rains in vegetable-growing areas of Tamil Nadu.

Vegetable wholesaler N.H. Shameed said vegetable arrivals had gone down considerably for a week now. He said vegetable suppliers had attributed the reduced arrivals to rains in the neighbouring State where crop operations had been hit by the weather conditions.

Sources in the Kerala State Horticultural Products Development Corporation (Horticorp) said there was shortage of produce coming in from places such as Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, where heavy rains had been reported.

The rising prices were mostly reflected in vegetable cowpea, bhindi, beans and carrot, said the wholesaler. He said this week most of the vegetables were being sold about Rs.5 to Rs.6 higher than a week ago. Vegetable cowpea was selling for Rs.45 a kg in the retail market; bhindi costs Rs.40; best quality French bean costs Rs.50 a kg. The price of carrot is up by about Rs.5 a kg at Rs.42 a kg in the retail market.

At the same time, the arrival of the red variety of big onions from Tamil Nadu has helped cool the price of the bulb, though the premium quality sourced from Pune continues to sell for over Rs.50 a kg in the retail market. The Tamil Nadu variety sells between Rs.35 and Rs.40 a kg.

Kerala sources most of its imported vegetables from places such as Ottamchatram, Coimbatore, Ootty and Mettuppalayam. These centres supply produce such as green chilli, bhindi, beans and snake gourd. Karnataka is a source for tomato, cucumber, cabbage and beans while Andhra Pradesh is a source for ginger, lemon and pickling lemon. Pulianpetti and Sathyamangalam are sources of vegetable cowpea, bhindi and cabbage.

Horticorp sources said the availability of locally-grown vegetables had visibly increased.

Source : The Hindu