Wholesale appropriation

The Vashi wholesale market in Mumbai provides one good reason for dismantling middlemen in India’s food supply chain. All deals there are done under a towel – an age-old informal practice in India but one that was outlawed in the fifties. The more striking point, however, is this unofficial deal-making, which adds to the premium consumers pay, goes on right under the nose of officials in the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), which is supposed to monitor wholesale deals and has fixed the commission, since APMC’s offices are just outside the mandi.