Festive demand leads to 4% dip in vegetable supplies; wholesale, retail prices shoot up: Analysis
Lucknow, Oct 31 (IBNS): While supply of vegetables across India declined by about four per cent, their average price rose by over 12 per cent and by about nine per cent at wholesale and retail markets in October owing to rise in festive demand, noted an ASSOCHAM analysis.
“The rise in wholesale and retail prices of different vegetables in Lucknow was maximum across over 25 cities in India thereby registering a growth of over 71 per cent and 52 per cent in October over September while supply of vegetables in the city declined by over 35 per cent,” according to an analysis conducted by ASSOCHAM Economic Research Bureau (AERB) of data compiled by the government-owned National Horticulture Board (NHB).
“Lack of basic infrastructure puts significant strain in arrival of vegetables which results in more wastage during peak times of production and demand. Besides, because of their perishable nature producers have to sell the produce immediately as such they fail to gain when prices rise,” said ASSOCHAM secretary general, Mr D.S. Rawat while releasing the chamber’s analysis.
ASSOCHAM had analysed price trends for various vegetables like bitter gourd, brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, ginger, chilly, okra, onion, peas, potato, tomato and others for September and October.
While the average wholesale price of aforementioned vegetables across major cities in India was about Rs 1,873 per quintal in September it rose to Rs 2,100 per quintal in October.
Similarly, retail price rose from Rs 3,051 per quintal to Rs 3,320 per quintal, noted the ASSOCHAM’s analysis.
Improper bagging without crating, dearth of temperature-controlled vehicles, lack of cold chain facilities, primitive food processing technology and other such factors collectively result in poor post-harvest storage and handling of agriculture produce in most parts of India.
Major drawbacks of current supply chain are high level of wastage, quality degradation, poor infrastructural facilities and high cost.
Thus supply chain management in fruits and vegetables has to be improved in all stages of supply by adopting global best practices in storage, packaging, handling, transportation, value added services and other areas to meet India’s demand of fruits and vegetables.
It is about time that government at both the Centre and in states must join hands with private players to improve physical infrastructure, information sharing and services required for quality improvement of the supply chain.
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