Green veggies costlier by up to 100%; Onion hits 2-year high

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Vegetables have started slipping out of consumers’ plates due to a sharp increase in their prices over the past month, on reduced supply following extended rain delaying the harvesting of the new season’s crop. Green vegetables have become costlier by up to 100 per cent during the last four weeks in both wholesale and retail markets.

Not only primary vegetables, but also additives like garlic, ginger and chilly have recorded a sharp increase in prices, which has destabilised the common man’s kitchen budget. Onion has hit its highest in two years and is trading currently (October 23) at Rs 28 a kg in Asia’s largest mandi, Lasalgaon.

While the price increase this time around is not new, such a sharp increase has not been seen in recent memory. Taking advantage of the situation, doorstep hawkers are selling cauliflower at Rs 120-140 a kg despite its price hovering around Rs 60 a kg in the wholesale mandi near Mumbai. Cauliflower is quoted at Rs 17.50 a kg and Rs 25 a kg in the benchmark Delhi and Mumbai markets, respectively.