Chennai: Retailers mark up vegetable prices – Times of India

CHENNAI: The prices of vegetable at the Koyambedu wholesale market came down, but retailers in various neighbourhoods jacked up rates on Friday, when there was a shortage for lemon.
For instance, ginger that sold for Rs 70 a kg at the Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex (KWMC), sold for Rs 40 per 250g (Rs 160 a kg) at Saidapet. The cost of spinach and carrot also doubled, with traders attributing it to the inconvenience in accessing the KWMC. Shafeeq, who has set up a makeshift vegetable shop at Saidapet, said they had to run from pillar to post to access veggies. “I reached Koyambedu at 1am and returned with vegetables by 5am. There are heavy restrictions for entry to (small) traders,” he said.

At the KWMC, which is now operating with 200 wholesale shops, prices plunged by Rs 5-Rs 10 as the number of traders visiting shrunk compared to Thursday. While more than 2,000 tonnes of vegetables arrived at KYMC, the demand from traders was less. S Chandran, secretary of Federation of Wholesale Vegetable Market Associations, said this was reason for the drop in prices. However, lemon, the most sought-after during the summer, is out of stock.
“Lemon is sold by about 40 semi-wholesale traders who have downed shutters,” Chandran added.
Besides, arrival of ladies’ fingers, sourced in small quantity from farmers at Chengalpet and Tiruvallur, has stopped.
Chennai police commissioner A K Viswanathan and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) member secretary D Karthikeyan in the morning inspected the Koyambedu market to take stock of implementation of social distancing norms and closure of retail shops.

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