Huge difference in retail, wholesale rates
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM/BELGAUM: Even as the price of vegetables has shot up considerably due to proclaimed loss of crops due to heavy rains, one cannot explain how the retail vegetable rates are double, compared to wholesale rates.
In Goa, we pay Rs 40 for a kg of onion with the local vegetable vendor, which is actually purchased for around Rs 20, with the best quality fetching Rs 30, in the wholesale markets of Belgaum.
A bundle of coriander is sold at a retail price of Rs 15 in Panjim and Margao ~ the price can go up in rural areas ~ but the actual wholesale cost may work out to just Rs 4.
The retail price of tomatoes per kg is Rs 30, while the wholesale price would work out to Rs 10-16; similarly retail price of brinjals per kg is Rs 50 versus the wholesale price of Rs 20 to 22 and retail price of cabbage per kg
is Rs 30 versus the wholesale price of Rs 12-13. The retail and wholesale rates of other vegetables is as seen in the table.
As consumers in the State are told that due to various factors, prices have gone up, the almost hundred per cent difference is quite a shocker.
Incessant rains lashing Belgaum since the last two months have affected the vegetable yield in the hinterland, say whole suppliers. “Though initially the supplies were normal and vegetable rates were under control, excess rains affected the vegetable yields affecting the supplies,” Sandeep Amboji, a wholesale trader, told Herald.
