According to traders in the Belgaum wholesale vegetable market the downward trend of vegetable prices is not expected to continue further. This trend is expected to change by the first week of May, when there will be a rise in prices.
When asked whether the rise in prices would be steep as the vegetables that have been harvested in a hurry are expected to exhaust soon, Umesh Patil, former secretary of the Wholesale Vegetables Merchants Association, said there is no reason to worry.
“Unseasonal rains have come both as a bane and boon to the farmers who have had an opportunity to cultivate more vegetables, which means this crop is expected to arrive by May first week. Hence, the rise in vegetable prices could be marginally-based on the weather conditions,” Patil said.
The Goa Horticulture Corporation too confirmed that as the vegetables had been harvested early due to the unseasonal rains, prices of certain vegetables could rise in future.
“Yes, there could be a rise in vegetable prices,” the corporation’s Managing Director Nelson Figueiredo told Herald. However, he said that there would not be too much of a difference. Corporation vegetable rates are based on daily market rates even though contracts are signed with suppliers in the neighbouring state.
Meanwhile, it is a good time for consumers due to the affordable vegetable prices in the market, and tough times for farmers continue. “Instead of dumping the crop in garbage, we prefer to send them to the market, so that at least people can benefit,” Tukaram Patil, a cauliflower and cabbage growing farmer from Uchagon said.
Like Tukaram many farmers too are trying to cover the labour and transportation costs from the yields in their farms and are pinning hopes on the month of May, where the demand for vegetables generally rises due to weddings and other functions.
Meanwhile, prices of vegetables continued to remain as they were in the first week of April.
