Prices of veggies, fruits rise in Delhi due to higher fuel rates: Traders

Prices of vegetables and fruits in the city's wholesale and retail markets have risen further this week as surging fuel prices continued to push transportation costs, traders said on Wednesday.

Vegetable and fruit traders, however, said that rates were not that steep at this point but indicated that these consumables might get dearer in coming weeks if diesel prices continue to swell in the same fashion.

In the national capital, petrol is selling at Rs 98.81 per litre on Wednesday, while diesel is priced at Rs 89.18 per litre.

Rajendra Sharma, a wholesale vegetable and fruit trader at Delhi's largest Azadpur Mandi, said that prices of wholesale and retail vegetables and fruits have increased slightly.

"Wholesale prices of onion are now in the range of Rs 23-25 per kg, while during normal scenario at this time of the season, rates would be around Rs 16-20 a kg. Similarly, pomegranate, which comes from Maharashtra, is priced around Rs 70-90 per kg. It normally sells at around Rs 60-80 during this time of the season," he said.

The trader attributed the price rise to a hike in transportation cost. Now that diesel rates have almost touched Rs 90 per litre in Delhi, transporters have revised their fee, Sharma said.

A wholesale trader at Okhla Mandi, Haji Yamin, corroborated the price hike in staple vegetables such as onion, tomato and potato.

"Onion and tomato come to Delhi mainly from Maharashtra while potato from Shimla and Uttar Pradesh. Since the prices of diesel have increased quite a bit so it has also raised the transportation cost. The another factor which is contributing to hike is longer detours being taken by truckers due to farmers protest at Delhi borders," Yamin said.

He added that wholesale prices of onion were Rs 25-27 per kg in Okhla Mandi while tomato was selling at Rs 20-22 per kg.

"Normally, wholesale prices of onion, tomato and potato used to range around Rs 15-18 per kg, Rs 12-16 per kg and Rs 8-10 per kg, respectively. Generally, if wholesale rates of any vegetable go up by Rs 5 per kg, it translates into a retail hike of Rs 10-12 per kg of that vegetable, Yamin said.

He, however, said that there was not much impact of fuel price hike on seasonal fruits like mango as those are perishable items and also come from shorter distance like Haryana and UP.

Subodh Mandal, a retailer in south Delhi's Greater Kailash market, said, "The prices of vegetables such as onion, tomato, potato etc have started increasing slightly. It is because of fuel price hike. In retail markets, good quality onion is selling at Rs 50-60 per kg, tomato at Rs 40-45 per kg. Retail prices of potato are around Rs 20-25 per kg."

Consumers too are complaining of price rise of vegetables.

"Today (Wednesday) I bought onion at a price of Rs 52 per kg and tomato for Rs 42 per kg. These are increased rates as around a fortnight back I bought these staple vegetables for Rs 45 per kg and Rs 35 per kg, respectively," Deepak Rastogi, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, said.

He said that, though the hike is not very steep but if fuel prices keep on going upward in the same fashion, vegetables can get dearer in coming weeks.