Bharat Khatiwada, president of Kalimati Vegetables Wholesalers´ Association, said retailers are fixing prices of vegetables 20 to 50 percent higher than the wholesale prices depending on the vegetables items. [break]
“Normally, retail prices shouldn´t go up by 15 percent as compared to wholesale prices. But retailers are fixing prices up to 50 percent higher than wholesale price without any justifiable reason,” Khatiwada said.
He further added that there was no need to jack up prices because the supplies of vegetables has not dwindled sharply despite some disruption in transportation due to heavy rain and lower production.
Officials at Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Market Development Board said daily arrivals of vegetables, fruits, spices and fishes combined at the Kalimati market is hovering around 550 tons a day, which is about 10-15 percent lower than the volume that used to arrive in the market during flush season.
Binaya Shrestha, senior planning office at the board, said despite lower quantity of vegetables arriving in the Kalimati market, prices of some of the vegetables items such as big tomatoes, small tomatoes, onion dry, cabbage, French bean and asparagus have gone down over the period.
Prices of big tomatoes and small tomatoes have dropped to Rs 44 and Rs 48 per kg from Rs 48 and Rs 50 per kg respectively.
Similarly, prices of dry onion and local cauliflower have lowered to Rs 20 and Rs 32 per kg from Rs 21 and Rs 36 per kg respectively. French bean and asparagus are selling cheaper at Rs 50 and Rs 100 per kg from Rs 52 and Rs 110 per kg respectively.
However, prices of carrot, bitter gourd and bottle gourd have increased Rs 55, Rs 38 and Rs 34 per kg from Rs 54, Rs 35 and Rs 28 per kg respectively over the period.
Red potatoes and white potatoes are selling unchanged at Rs 23 and Rs 16 per kg respectively.
Related story
Lending to wholesalers and retailers swells
