AP: Soaring vegetable and oil prices leave family budgets in tatters

VIJAYAWADA: Skyrocketing prices of vegetables and cooking oils has become a major concern for the consumers. Prices of brinjal, ridge gourd, okra, and carrot touched an all-time high of Rs 85 per kg in local markets on Saturday. Incessant rains damaged the vegetable crops in Rayalaseema and south coastal districts and resulted in increases in prices all of a sudden across the state.

Tomato, which initially touched Rs 120 per kg mark, is now stable at Rs 50 per kg after officials started importing from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana.
But traders and market authorities are not importing other vegetables considering the huge cost of transport. “Ridge gourd and bottle gourd are widely cultivated in Chittoor and Nellore districts and we usually import their crop. But production fell significantly following the rains. We made efforts to import them from Maharashtra but stalled our proposals as farmers there are selling ridge gourd at Rs 35 per kg and we have to sell it at wholesale rate of Rs 65 after adding transport cost and margin. Consumers will not buy it at that price,” said M Sesharatnam, a wholesale vegetable vendor at Kaleswara Rao wholesale market in the city.
On the other hand, the soaring prices of cooking oils is also worrying the consumers. Prices of sunflower, palm, groundnut and gingelly oils increased by 25 per cent when compared to last year.
Traders expect prices to rise further next month as demand increases during Sankranti season.