At wholesale fruits market in Kuleshwor Saturday, fruits such as mango, watermelon and litchi, harvest season for which is soon getting over, were being sold at Rs 15 more than their prices last week.[break]
Mango, one of the popular fruits of the season, for instance, was priced at Rs 50 per kg, up by Rs 8 over the last week´s price. Litchi was traded for Rs 80 per kg, a hike of Rs 15 over last week´s rate and watermelon were being sold at Rs 28 per kg, up from Rs 23 a week ago.
Likewise, Chinese apples were priced at Rs 85 per kg on the day.
However, some of the fruits such as papaya and pomegranates have become cheaper as their fresh harvest entered the market, stepping up supplies. On Saturday, pomegranate was sold at Rs 150 per kg, down from last week´s Rs 230 per kg.
The price of papaya too dropped by Rs 5 per kg and was traded at Rs 30 on Saturday. Nepal meets most of the demand of fruits through imports. As said by Dipendra Shrestha, treasurer at Kuleshwar market, "Most of the fruits are imported from India. Apple and pear come from China."
Shrestha added that the market was presently receiving mango from suppliers based in Lahan and litchi from Dhading.
Sushma Simkhada, secretary of Nepal Fruit Wholesale Association (NFWA) said prices of seasonal fruits are increasing as their harvest season is coming to an end. "The prices of fruits like mango and litchi never came down to last year´s level because local productions this year remained low," she stated. "And whatever supply we received from India remained expensive because of increase in transportation cost," she added.
NWFA fulfills 90 percent of the demand for fruits in the valley.
Urmila Poudel, local vendor, said that with the arrival of monsoon season, demand for seasonal fruits suddenly went up. "We are selling fruits at higher rate because low supply affects our transactions. We need to make enough income from the current limited supply," she added.
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