SANGAM

Short Supply Leads To Vegetables’ Price Rise
Sangam Prasain

Sita Tamang, 54, is so worried by the skyrocketing vegetable prices in Kathmandu valley that she keeps on talking about the costs of vegetables whenever she meets her friends and relatives.
‘’What expensive are bottle-gourd and squash, I had to pay Rs.50 for a kg of squash," says Tamang, a resident of Bhaktapur, who depends on her husband’s earnings to manage the household expenses.
"I can’t afford to buy other things I want," Tamang adds desperately.
The prices of vegetables during the first three months of the current fiscal year escalated by over 100 per cent as compared to the prices of the same months the previous year.
"Not only the vegetables, everything has become expensive. It has made the life of poor like us who have to survive within the meager income more difficult," she laments.
According to Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market (KFVM), the price of the vegetables in Kathmandu Valley has reached the highest this year.
"The high rise in vegetables prices is attributed to the long spell of drought across the country and the growing population in the valley. The demand of vegetables is higher than the production," Tulshi Gautam, the executive director of KFVM, informed.
Gautam said that most of the vegetable producing areas across Nepal had witnessed an acute shortage of manpower.
"When the manpower required to produce vegetables are flying overseas for better works, the vegetable production has come down and this year there was a long spell of drought," he added.
"Imbalance between demand and production is likely to push the prices of the vegetables and the fruits up in the high hills in the coming days."
However, the price of onion and fish has witnessed a slight increment this year as compared to the last year. According to Gautam, 90 per cent of onions and fishes are being imported from India.
There is a daily demand of 1,000 metric tons vegetables in the Kathmandu Valley and the supply stands in between 250 to 350 metric tons.
Thus, there is a shortage of about 600 metric tons vegetables every day.
The KFVM had supplied around 204,000 metric tons of vegetables in the year 2064 BS from different districts of Nepal and from India. The demand of the vegetables surged to around 277,000 metric tons at the end of 2065 BS.
The total demand is going to climb up over 300,000 metric tons in the coming year.
According to the KFVM, KFVM is covering 70 per cent demands in the Valley. The remaining vegetables are supplied by the local markets.
According to Gautam, Dhading, Kavre, Sindhuli and Nuwakot supply over 60 per cent of vegetables to the Kathmandu Valley.
According to the inflation report of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) for the first ten months of the last fiscal year, the price indices of vegetables and fruits as well as meat, fish and eggs sub-groups increased by 33.5 per cent and 27.5 percent respectively in the review period compared to an increase of 1.8 per cent and 10.2 per cent in the same period last year.
Rameshwori Panta, Director at the NRB, Research Department Price Division, said that the price rise of the vegetable items was related to the emerging market demands.
According to her, vegetables items this year had witnessed a massive surge against other commodities and over demand and poor supply system were the leading factors behind the high price rises.
"The vegetables sellers across Kathmandu Valley say that drought that triggered poor harvest of the vegetables this year is responsible for the short supply of the vegetables in the valley."
She said that the budget has tried to address the supply system of household commodities. "If the government transforms its commitment into action, the inflation will be controlled," she said.