News
Green chilli causes heartburn at Rs 1,150 a kilo, vegetable prices rocket
The eye-watering price of green chilli in the market is leaving a pungent taste in the mouths of millions who get by on pol sambal and rice, especially the poor. Green chilli, mainly grown in the dry zone districts including Moneragala, Vavuniya, Ampara, Kurunegala, and Puttalam, is now retailing at an unprecedented Rs 1,150 a kilo in Colombo and the suburbs.
What is worse for the average household is that prices of vegetables are also ticking over like taxi meters.Agri officers predict a 50 per cent drop in vegetable production. As supply contracts, prices of popular vegetables such as beans, leek, carrot, beetroot, and cabbage will most certainly rise further.
Large-scale vendors cite adverse weather and natural disasters being contributory factors in low supply.Farmers are also incurring losses as a result of low yields, and high input costs such as seed and labour costs. Chilli growers in particular tussle with pests and diseases such as leaf curl and root rot. Besides, thousands of small-scale farmers are deep in debt across the country.
To try to mitigate the effects of a confluence of adverse factors, the Department of Agriculture is distributing pots of green chilli to farmers to grow in the off-season, rainy months of July and December, instructor S.A Kalana said.
In Dambulla, one of the main vegetable cultivation areas, agricultural officers warned of a 50 per cent drop in production in the next two months.Manning Market welfare society Secretary Gamini Handunge, said consumers are buying less. “Nobody purchases more than 500 grams per item. This is because most vegetables are now over Rs 100 per kilogram, and people cannot afford it.”
Dambulla Economic centre: Where vegetable prices soar. Pix by Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa
At the Manning Market in the Pettah, where wholesale and retail trading of vegetables takes place, prices have rocketed higher this week. Vendors say supply from the highlands has dropped by about 40 per cent the past week.
Amid the unbearable rise in the cost of living, for years now, home makers have opted for cheaper choices such as manioc.
Our Dambulla correspondent reports that carrots are fetching Rs. 250-290 a kilo, beetroot is Rs. 210-290 per kilo, beans Rs. 300 per kilo, Rs. 230-240; butter beans, Rs. 270-280 and long beans Rs. 212-240. Lime Rs. 645, tomato Rs. 200, drumstick Rs.600-plus, luffa Rs. 166, and capsicum Rs. 350.
The prices of pumpkin, kekiri, cucumber and snake gourd remain low. At economic centres, pumpkin and kekiri are sold at Rs. 60-65 a kilo and cucumber at Rs. 70-80. Snake gourd is Rs. 90-100. Ridged gourd (vetakolu) is sold in supermarkets at about Rs. 170. Bitter gourd is selling at Rs.190-200.
The Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute says that compared with last year, the price of beans has increased by 40 per cent, carrot by 47 per cent, cabbage by 62 per cent, and drumsticks and lime by 80 and 82 per cent respectively.
