With no takers, veggie prices crash at Tirumazhisai

Chennai

On Friday, there was a substantial number of customers at the market. But the next day, not even 50 per cent of the vendors visited the market due to the lockdown. This led to a severe crash in prices, and even forced many traders to dump the remaining vegetables at the end of the day.

“On Saturday, there were no customers after 2 am. The prices had increased after two weeks but with so few customers, we had to sell all the vegetables at a low price. On Friday, we sold chilli for Rs 50 per kg, but it went down to just Rs 10 per kg the next day. Beans went from Rs 80 per kg to Rs 20 – Rs 30. Many dumped vegetables at the end of the day. We are worried that the business would remain the same till the end of this lockdown,” said P Lucas, a wholesale trader at the Tirumazhisai market.

Of the 1,000 to 1,500 loads of vegetables that the market receives every day, only 50 per cent is sold. Of the remaining, the ones that get spoiled soon are dumped while the rest are saved.

According to K Babu, another trader, the lockdown and strict crowd control by the police were affecting the business.

“The police allow only 10 vendors at a time. Till those 10 come out, the remaining vendors would buy vegetables from those selling outside the market area. Though the police are doing it to avoid overcrowding in the market, it is affecting our business,” Babu said.

P Sukumaran, secretary, Koyambedu Wholesale Market Merchants’ Association said the prices crash as there was no business. Usually, the business would pick up during weekends but with total shutdown on Sundays as part of the lockdown, the traders were incurring huge losses, he said.