Much to the relief of the consumers across the district here, prices of the most essential vegetables, including onion and potato, have started to decline because of improved local supplies.
Vegetable traders said this was a seasonal trend which was expected to continue during next few weeks till the end of winter.
Brinjal price dropped from `15 to `10 per kg this week. Similarly, price of cauliflower, which rose to `30 a kg last month, dipped to `20 a kg. The sharpest fall in price of tomato was found. It was sold at `20 per kg in January but is now selling at around `10 per kg. "In the last few weeks, price of vegetables had been soaring. It was pinching. Now that the falling prices are a sign of relief,” said Ramesh Jena of Jajpur.
Many vegetable vendors are also quite happy that prices have gone down. According to a vegetable vendor Farik Ali of Jajpur, the price of tomatoes has fallen from `20 per kg to `10 this week, whereas price of onion has drastically come down from `30 per kg `Rs 15 after local onions reached the market. "In the past few weeks, my regular customers had reduced their purchases. But I am expecting everything to get back to normal now after a fall in prices of vegetables,” he said.
"Prices of vegetables, including tomato and onion, fell in the local market with an increase in supply, mainly from the local farms. I raised a local variety of onion on my half acre of land and harvested six quintals. The quality of local onion is not good compared to the onions of Mahararstra and other States. But I sell it at `15 per kg," said Bhikari Das, a vegetable grower of Bari.
"Due to non availability of cold storage facilities in our areas, large numbers of farmers are being compelled to sell vegetables at lower prices. The prices of vegetables soar from May to December due to non-availability of storage system. Five years back, we used to store vegetables in a cold storage at Bari. But the authority closed it down for which the vegetable growers are forced to go for distress sale,” said Anadi Pradhan, a vegetable grower of Balichandrapur village.
"Many vegetable traders from Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and other areas have been taking vegetables from here. They purchase the vegetables at much lower prices than they sell in the cities. Middle man exploitation is rampant in vegetable trade as the farmers always are in a hurry to sell the vegetables after the harvest,” said Prafulla Sahoo, a vegetable grower of Bari.