Price of veggies fairly stable, fruits rise

Kathmandu, September 3

The price of vegetables at the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Market were fairly constant in the week as supply to the Valley was quite normal.

Price of fruits, however, went up when compared to the rates of previous Saturday.

“The weekly supply in the Kalimati market normally ranges from 600 to 700 tonnes and it was within that band in the past week,” said Tejendra Prasad Poudel, executive director of Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market Development Board.

Even as retail prices of vegetables like cowpeas (bodi), mushrooms and okra went up in the week, price of staples like red and white potatoes, dry onions, cabbage and eggplants remained the same like in the previous Saturday.

Retail price of cowpeas surged the most, by 46.15 per cent, to Rs 95 per kg. Price of mushrooms went up by 44.74 per cent to Rs 275 a kg and that of okra by 18.18 per cent to Rs 65. Local cauliflower became 23.53 per cent more expensive to be priced at Rs 105 per kg, bitter gourd (titey karela) by 22.22 per cent to Rs 55 per kg and tomatoes got 18.18 per cent costlier to be priced at Rs 65 per cent.

Meanwhile, potatoes were priced at the same level as in the previous Saturday — Rs 55 per kg for red and Rs 45 per kg for white. Other vegetables that did not witness any price fluctuations include onions at Rs 35 per kg, cabbages at Rs 35 per kg, eggplants at Rs 45 per kg, bottle gourd    at Rs 35 per kg, snake gourd (chichindo) and sponge gourd (gheeraula) at Rs 45 per kg each.

Meanwhile, retail price of green onions plunged by 38.95 per cent to Rs 58 a kg, christophine (iskus) by 20 per cent to Rs 28 per kg and capsicum dropped by 17.86 per cent to Rs 115 per kg.

Among the fruits, only the retail price of pineapples remained constant at Rs 105 per unit. Apples became dearer by 14.81 per cent to be priced at Rs 155 per kg, bananas by 11.76 per cent to Rs 95 per dozen, pears by 28.57 per cent to Rs 45 per kg, among others.