As many as 1,600 wholesale fruit and vegetable mandis have started functioning smoothly and 300 more will operate from Friday after the Central Government on Thursday stepped in to normalise the supply during the lockdown. Social distancing, safety measures are in place at mandis. To ensure that vegetables and fruits continue to reach people without any hindrance, Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) has started giving out passes to those involved in the supply chain for their easy movement in the city.
Officials of the agriculture ministry said that the ministry is in constant touch with state governments in charge of agriculture marketing and APMC or wholesale mandi boards to take proactive measures to ensure supply of essential vegetables and fruits is not hit during the lockdown period.
“There were initial resistance but we have persuaded with State Government and APMC board to keep mandis open. As a result, 1,600 fruits and vegetable mandis have started functioning smoothly today and 300 more will open from Friday,” officials said. While there is no scarcity of vegetables and fruits arriving in the capital, wholesale traders said that sending it to retail markets was a challenge. Because of the lockdown, the retailers are finding it difficult to reach the wholesale market. Vegetable traders’ association general secretary Anil Malhotra alleged that wholesalers and staff were not able to reach Azadpur mandi leading to rotting of the stock of perishable items.
There are about 6,900 wholesale mandis, including grains, vegetables and fruits ones, across the country. The grain mandis get activated during the time of harvest.
Right now, the focus is on vegetable and fruit mandis. To normalise supply in major cities, the Centre has asked Mother Dairy’s Safal vegetable outlets in Delhi, Sufal Bangla retail outlets in Kolkata, Hopcoms retail outlets in Bengaluru and similar outlets in Chennai and Mumbai to monitor movement of supplies and coordinate with local administration.
On the inter-state movement of vegetables, officials said traders are “facing problems on the ground as the police is enforcing strictly the lockdown rules”. However, mandis have been asked to set up a control room to intervene and coordinate with local police and district collector as well as transport association to resolve the matter, officials added. On safety and preventive measures, the official said awareness is being created about coronavirus outbreak through loudspeaker and even posters have been put out in mandis.
Besides, mandis have put in place a system to maintain social distancing and encouraging traders to wear face masks and hand sanitisers regularly to combat coronavirus. Even mandi premise is being disinfected regularly, the official added. While many people complained that retail prices had risen, traders said wholesale rates of onion and potato had fallen by 25%. Many traders are nervous.