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Vegetable shortage to last till January end, traders warn
The shortage of vegetables that has led to high prices even of the most common varieties, is expected to last till the end of the month, traders’ associations warned yesterday.
The Dambulla Economic Centre Who will buy these vegetables?
They said the recent heavy rains in the vegetable growing areas had destroyed crops in the Central and North-Central Provinces and other neighbouring areas leading to a short supply of vegetables entering the wholesale market in Dambulla.
Bad weather during the tail end of last year that triggered off land slides and earth slips blocked roads hindering transport of vegetables from Nuwara Eliya, Ragala, Talawakelle, Bandarawela and other areas in the upcountry region, they added.
They said the situation will ease once vegetables start coming from the Jaffna Peninsula where even vegetables grown up country such as carrot, beetroot, potatoes, radish and cabbage, are cultivated on a large scale among other dry zone crops.
The prevailing retail prices for any variety of vegetables are currently ranging from Rs. 500 to Rs. 600 per kilogram while green chillies are sold at a staggering Rs.1000 or even more per kilogram.
Dambulla Economic Centre (DEC) Manager Christy Wijeyratne said that there is a 60 to 70 per cent drop in the flow of vegetables to the centre over the past few weeks and this situation is set to prevail for at least another 20 days.
He added that besides the bad weather leading to the disruption of transport of vegetables, large stocks of vegetables had to be supplied to 
hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the floods and thereby the demand exceeded the supply.
He also scoffed at rumours that certain errant traders at the DEC and elsewhere were hoarding vegetables in order to raise prices.
Green chilies selling at Rs. 1,000 a kilo in Dambulla Pix by Kanchana Ariyadasa
“There is no truth in these claims since vegetables are a perishable merchandise and keeping such produce in chillers will also be counter productive,” Mr. Wijeyratne said.
Meanwhile officials at the Economic Centre in Nuwara Eliya said apart from potatoes and cabbage that were being sold at below Rs. 100 per kilogram, all prices for the other traditional vegetables such as beetroot, leeks, cabbage and Red Turnip had crossed the Rs. 300 mark.
They said farmers in the area had reported that large areas of crops had been destroyed owing to the inclement weather that prevailed in the region before and after Christmas.
| Prices high in South, half that in Jaffna While the prices of vegetables sky rocketed in the south and other parts of the country it is a different story in the Jaffna Peninsula. Most of the vegetables were selling at half the price when compared with the prices in other parts of the country. The retail prices of vegetables at the main vegetable market in Jaffna yesterday ranged from Rs. 50 to 260 per kilogram. A kilogram of cabbage was selling at Rs. 260, brinjals at Rs. 180 per kilo, manioc at Rs. 40 to Rs. 60 per kilo, bitter gourd at Rs. 200 per kilo, potatoes at Rs. 80 to Rs. 100 pr kilo, ladies’ fingers at Rs. Rs. 150 per kilo, beans at Rs. 250 to Rs. 300 per kilo, leeks at Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 per kilo, tomatoes at Rs. 140 to Rs. 180 per kilo with green chilies priced at the highest price of Rs. 600 per kilo. |