Anti-Telangana stir affects chilli prices in Chennai maret

Supply of green chilli mainly from Andhra Pradesh, trips were cancelled by lorry owners

The anti-Telangana agitation in Andhra Pradesh has pushed up prices of some chilli varieties at Koyambedu market, Asia's largest whole-sale market, according to wholesalers.

On the other side, the price of tomato has crashed in the market last week, as the trucks to various parts of Andhra Pradesh has been diverted to the city.

"We have seen the prices of green chilli increasing after the recent Telengana issues started. The wholesale prices were almost Rs 80 per kg while it has touched up to Rs 110 per kg in retail early this week," said V R Soundararajan, advisor to the vegitable market's association.

He added that the supply of green chilli is mainly from Andhra Pradesh and the trips were cancelled by lorry owners due to the unrest in the State. This has created a price increase in the Chennai market.

According to a recent data from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Andhra Pradesh is the largest producer of chilli in India contributing to about 44% to the total production, followed by Karnataka (12%), West Bengal (8%), Madhya Pradesh (7%), Maharashtra (4%) and Tamil Nadu (2%).

However, while admitting that no lorries with Chilli is coming from Andhra Pradesh now, A Chandraiah, president of Madras Chillies Merchants Association said that the price increase due to this is insignificant as Chennai has adequate stocks.

"Previously, 5-10 lorries of chillies with 10-15 tonne each were coming to Chennai from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Now, not a single lorry is coming," he said.

The price of Chilli was at around Rs 28 per Kg in wholesale level, in Coimbatore on August 1, 2013, while it went up to Rs 50 per Kg by August 14, according to the Dynamic Market Information by the e-resource dvisiion of Agro Marketing Intelligence and Business Promotion Centre, under the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.

It may be noted that the prices of Tomato in Koyambedu market has also come down recently owing to the Telengana issue. Around 10-15 truck loads per day with destination in various markets of Andhra Pradesh were diverted to the Chennai market, due to the protests related to the division of Andhra Pradesh, said A Selvaraj, of the Association of tomato merchants in the market. The prices has come down from Rs 40 per kg almost 20-25 days back to Rs 10-15 per kg.

At present, a few trips to Andhra Pradesh has resumed, since the agitation has been muted at present. However, the prices are not going up since fresh stock has arrived from the fields, he added.