Veg prices spike on poor supply

Vegetable prices have shot up in the capital's kitchen markets due to a fall in supply as many of the major vegetable growing regions lost crops for heavy rainfall over the last two weeks, claim traders and agriculture officials.

In some city markets, the price of green chilli soared to Tk 100 a kg yesterday from Tk 70 a week ago, while brinjal prices went up to Tk 70 from Tk 50 per kg.

Prices of leafy vegetables also rose.

"It has happened mainly because of fall in supply. Heavy downpour has affected vegetable production in many areas," said Kawsar Hamid, a vegetable retailer at Karwan Bazar.

Yesterday, he sold snake gourd for Tk 70 a kg, compared to Tk 60 a day back.

Anis Mia, a vegetable retailer at Tejturi Bazar, said the prices of most vegetables went up by Tk 10-15 a kg in the last one week.

Triggered by Cyclone Komen, torrential rains flooded crop fields in 30 districts in the country's southeast and southwest parts.

Around 20 percent of 87,815 hectares of vegetable fields in these districts were damaged by waterlogging and flash floods, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

Crops in two major vegetable growing districts -- Jessore and Jhenidah -- were damaged heavily due to heavy rains.

Vegetable fields in other districts, including Comilla, Narsingdi, Meherpur and Kushtia, were also affected, said DAE Director General Md Hamidur Rahman.

Heavy rainfall took its toll on the production of green chilli, snake

gourd, brinjal and pointed gourd, he added.

According to the Department of Agricultural Marketing, snake gourd was sold yesterday for Tk 50-65 a kg, up from Tk 45-60 a week ago in city's kitchen markets.

The price of brinjal, one of the most consumed vegetables, rose to Tk 40-70 a kg from Tk 35-60 a week ago.

The department put the retail price of green chilli at Tk 50-80 a kg, which was Tk 40-70 a week ago.

Prices of other vegetables such as cucumber, ridge gourd, teasel gourd, okra and papaya increased over the last one week. Leafy vegetables, including Malabar spinach and stem amaranth, also saw their prices go up.

Apart from those, onion prices continued to increase because of a drop in supply from India. It was sold for Tk 55-65 a kg yesterday, up from Tk 42-50 a week ago.

The price of egg was also on the rise for the last few days, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.