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Vegetables have become pricier adding to the hardship of commoners as they are already battered with increased prices of rice, wheat flour, edible oil, sugar, chicken, fish, milk and other essentials.
Prices of Rabi season veggies like cauliflower, cabbage, desi bean, tomato, cucumber, coriander leaf, carrot and others have witnessed 25-100 per cent hike which traders on Friday attributed to a gradual squeeze in Rabi crop supply as summer almost sets in.
Early harvested summer vegetables including bitter gourd, pointed gourds, snake gourds, summer brinjal, long-yard bean, sponge gourds, clocasia stems, moringa and others already hit the market but prices ranged between Tk 60 and Tk 120 a kg on Friday in the city.
A medium sized ash gourd, a summer vegetable, was sold at Tk 50-60 a piece while moringa was selling at Tk 100-120 a kg.
Supply of cauliflower and cabbage declined. So the prices were hovering at Tk 40-Tk 50 a piece based on size on the day.
Desi bean was retailed at Tk 55-65, cucumber Tk 50-Tk 70, carrot Tk 40-Tk 50 a kg.
Tomato was sold at Tk 25-Tk 40 a kg based on quality.
Pumpkin and papaya prices remained static at Tk 20-25 and Tk 30-Tk 40 a kg respectively, according to vegetable vendors in the Mohammadpur Agricultural Market (Krishi Market) and Rayer Bazar in the city.
Lemon prices were still higher at Tk 10-Tk 15 a piece depending on size and quality.
Kaosar Hossain, a vegetable vendor at Krishi Market, told the FE that prices of the veggies started increasing from the third week of March with declining supplies of the Rabi crop.
He said the prices further increased notably in last seven days by Tk 10-20 a kg or piece.
He said coriander leaf prices increased to Tk 250-Tk 300 a kg which might increase further ahead of Ramadan when demand for the item usually reaches its peak.
Brinjal, tomato and cucumber prices might also rise further in next two weeks following the beginning of the fasting month, he said.
Lokman Mridha, a vegetable wholesaler in the Nowabganj Bazar-Beribadh area, said prices of vegetables were much higher in the veg growing districts amid a supply crunch.
He said prices would start declining with the rising supply of summer crops from mid-April.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), they had a target to grow 12.5 million tonnes of vegetable in the Rabi season on nearly 0.6 million hectares of land.
There is a target to grow another 7.4 million tonnes of summer vegetables this year on 0.46 million hectares, according to DAE.
Prices of ginger and garlic posted a hike of Tk 10-20 a kg last week, according to the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
Rice, cooking oil, sugar, farm chicken, fish and milk prices remained static during the period.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) vice president SM Nazer Hossain said the hike in prices of rice, flour, farm chicken, edible oil, cultured fish, sugar, etc. already left commoners in a tight corner.