Vegetable price shoots up in Nepalgunj

By Our Correspondent, Nepalgunj, Nov. 25: Only a few days after the election concluded, price of vegetables has suddenly increased in Nepalgunj.

Compared with the period between a few days before the election and now, the price of vegetables has risen sharply, said local consumers. They said that the price rose suddenly. 

Mubarak Siddiki, a consumer of Nepalgunj-11, said that now the price of vegetables has more than doubled and he had no idea why.  He also said that there is a huge difference between the prices a few days before the election and the current ones.

Similarly, another consumer of Nepalgunj-7 Dinesh Manandhar regretted that he could not buy the vegetables that were available at a reasonable price until a few days ago. 

He said that a few days ago he bought potatoes for Rs. 40 a kilo, but now he had to pay Rs. 80 for the same quantity. 

Similarly, the price of chilli which had been available at Rs. 50 per kg few days ago has now reached Rs. 100 per kg. The price of bottle gourd has jumped from Rs. 40 per kg to Rs. 80 per kg, according to consumer.

According to the wholesale vegetable market at Ranitalau in Nepalgunj, a kg of green chillies were being sold at Rs. 100, cabbage at Rs. 60, cauliflower at Rs. 60, tomatoes at Rs. 100, okra at Rs. 120 and bitter gourd at Rs. 100. 

Mumtaz Rain, a vegetable trader at Ranitalau Vegetable Market, attributed the rise to the falling arrival of vegetables from India.

"After arrival of vegetables from India decreased, local farmers increased the price of their produce, forcing us to increase the prices," he said.

He said that high demand for vegetables in Nepalgunj market was causing their prices to rise.  

Ramzan Kabadiya, another vegetable trader, also said that they had increased the price because they had to buy at an expensive price and that now the demand for vegetables had increased everywhere.

Chief District Officer of Banke Surya Bahadur Khatri said that there had been a complaint about the sudden increase in the prices of vegetables and some other items for the past few days.

He said that the work was being started to find out reason behind it. 

Khatri said that there was continuous on-site monitoring about the price increase and added that action would be taken if there was an artificial increase.