Vegetable prices fall on better supply, output estimates

Traders attribute the decline to above-normal monsoon rain; sowing is estimated to have risen 10-15% so far this season

After peaking for about two months before, vegetable prices have started coming down on estimates of better output this year, with good monsoon rain promoting sowing.

Data compiled by the National Horticulture Board, a government body, show a 58 per cent decline in cabbage prices in Delhi this month, a 45 per cent fall in cauliflower and 29 per cent each in brinjal and tomato hybrids. Mumbai has seen a 14 per cent fall in onion prices and a decline in most others. Chennai saw a 23.5 per cent fall this month in the price of okra (ladyfinger) and in other horticultural crops. So, too, at Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Food led a sharp increase in July's wholesale price index to 3.55 per cent over a year before, from 1.62 per cent in June.

“The decline in vegetable prices can be attributed only to the above-normal monsoon rain. Sowing is estimated to have risen by 10-15 per cent so far this season,” said Shri Ram Gadhave, president, Vegetable Growers Association of India.

Farmers who’d sown vegetables in irrigated land during the pre-monsoon season have started harvesting early crops. So, supply has increased in wholesale markets. For example, bitter gourd supply in Delhi's was 38 tonnes on Wednesday, from a daily 20 tonnes early this month. Okra arrival in Mumbai was 124 tonnes, from 84 tonnes in early August. Bengaluru's reported okra arrival at 14 tonnes on Wednesday, from six tonnes early this month.

After forecasts of a delay in seasonal rain this year by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), vegetables prices surged in mid-June, which prompted action to check hoarders and stockists. IMD has reported three per cent above normal rain so far this monsoon.

Also, with many governments removing the compulsion for farmers to sell only at Agricultural Produce Market Committee mandis, farmers have started selling directly to consumers through produce bodies, raising their return.