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Wholesale prices of vegetables up

by Rashomi Silva

There was a considerable increase in wholesale and retail prices of vegetables countrywide yesterday. "This is the seasonal pattern of vegetable prices. A Few days back, the wholesale rates had been remarkably low", Chitra Hatturusinghe, the Head of the Marketing Department of the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian, Research and Training Institute (HARTI) told the Daily News.

"There is no gradual crop supply during the intermonsoonal rainy season. If it rains for two or three consecutive days the prices of vegetables drop significantly, because of the low demand and huge supply. If the rain ceases for a day or two again the vegetable prices go up as the demand goes up and the supply comes down." She said.

Hatturusinghe was of the opinion that the quality of vegetables too are not very satisfactory during the rainy period. The situation is the same both for the hill country and low country vegetables and onions. A similar trend could be observed in the Dambulla market. There is nothing much that could be done about the situation.

However in the case of the onions the quality goes down mainly because of the lack of dedication and hard work on the part of the farmers, she observed. Most farmers buy seed onions from the open market. In fact those seed onions are smuggled from India. Their yield is poor and the quality is low.

It is possible to produce seed onions in Sri Lanka but that is a painstaking procedure. A spokesperson for the Mahaweli Authority told the Daily News that the government has given maximum support to seed onion growers, but many farmers want to make easy money and go for low quality Indian seed onions. The seed onions grown in Sri Lanka is very good in quality and consequently can be sold at higher rates.

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