Vegetable prices soar in Punjab & Haryana

Prices of vegetables in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh have soared by 30-100 per cent in the last week on account of incessant rains in Himachal Pradesh, which has disrupted supplies to the neighbouring states.

According to traders, the prices of many vegetables have gone up considerably.

“In the rainy season, most of the vegetables including potato, cauliflower, capsicum, beans and green peas come from Himachal Pradesh as the local vegetable crop gets damaged in the rains. However, it has been pouring in HP for the past several days, which has damaged crops like peas and potato,” a wholesale dealer in Chandigarh’s Sector-26 Grain Market, Digvijay Kapoor said today.

The maximum increase in prices was witnessed in green peas, which shot up by more than 100 per cent since last week.

“Peas have virtually vanished from the markets as few traders are selling it owing to its high price due to short supply. It is selling in retail in the range of Rs 130-Rs 150 per kg as against Rs 60-80 until a week back,” Kapoor said.

The price of tomato, which was available for Rs 25 a kg four days ago, has now zoomed to Rs 40 a kg, a trader in Patiala said.

Potato prices also surged to Rs 20-30 a kg, after hovering around Rs 15 per kg for the last few days.

Other vegetables including lady’s finger, beans, capsicum, cauliflower have also witnessed price rise in the range of 20 to 35 per cent, traders in Punjab and Haryana said.

They said the prices are likely to stay on the higher side for the next few weeks in view of the approaching festival season, when the demand soars.