If you go grocery shopping with parents, you have probably observed something strange. The prices of vegetables have been rising for more than 5 weeks.
Sample this:
Azadpur Mandi, Delhi, is Asia’s largest wholesale market for fresh produce (fruits and vegetables). At this mandi, the lowest price for one quintal (100 kilograms is a quintal) of potatoes was ₹300 on 30th September 2021. On 30th October, the minimum price per quintal was ₹700. The highest price was ₹1200 on 30th September and ₹2200 on 30th October.
There are three essential vegetables that are needed in most Indian kitchens. Any change in the prices of these three vegetables affects a lot of people immediately.
These three vegetables are:
Potato Onion Tomato
Since September, the prices of all these three items have been rising.
Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Assam, and many other states have reported rising vegetable prices from September – October onwards. In October, the Central Government had also released government stocks of onions to help reduce prices in the market.
Why are the prices rising?
There are two main reasons why the prices of vegetables have been rising:
- High fuel prices: Vegetables depend on trucks to be transported to the nearest mandis. These trucks run on diesel. The prices of petrol and diesel have been rising consistently (regularly) over many months. As we know, the cost of an item is:
Cost of producing + Cost of transporting + Cost of selling + Taxes = Total Cost
In this case, the cost of transporting goes up, which means the total cost goes up too.
- Rainfall: Rainfall also damaged some vegetable crops and reduced the supply of vegetables available. As the supply fell, the prices went up.