CHENNAI: The menu for the meal and the quantity of food is decided by the price of vegetables today, say homemakers in Chennai as veggie prices go through the roof. Beans, carrot and cauliflower prices have skyrocketed in the past month, making them the least preferred vegetables in the kitchens of Chennai. On Monday the price of beans was Rs 45 per kg at the wholesale market in Koyambedu, but by the time they reached the retail shops across the city beans were sold at between Rs 80 and Rs 100 per kg in south Chennai and at around Rs 65-70 in central and north Chennai. Till last month beans sold for Rs 15 a kg.On Tuesday due to better supply the price of beans fell to Rs 40 per kg in Koyambedu market, but unfortunately this fall in price was not reflected in the retail market. R Mahalakshmi, a cook and a mother of two high school children, whose husband is an auto driver, said, “My children like beans, cauliflower and carrot, but they have become too expensive for us. So I have shifted to vegetables like brinjal and radish.”Chandran, president of the vegetable market liaison merchant association in Koyambedu said, “Even when the prices fall in the wholesale market, the retailers and vendors with carts continue to sell the vegetables at the higher prices for the next few days. That is how the market works, nothing much can be done.”Uma, a banker, said, “It doesn’t matter which socio-economic group people belong to, the menu for the meal in every home is largely decided by the price of vegetables. These days, with the price of beans going through the roof I have shifted to varakai, which is equally healthy and cheaper.”Uma said, “At times eating the cheaper seasonal vegetables becomes monotonous. Then I end up buying beans and carrot though they cost a bomb.”For those in the lower socio-economic groups this price hike has definitely hit their quantity of consumption.Shivashakthi, who works as a domestic help and is a mother of two, said, “These days because of the rising vegetable prices we buy less. I used to buy half a kg but now buy 250 grams. You can imagine in a family of four how much each one gets to eat of 250 grams of brinjal. I put less vegetables in sambar. We have no choice but to reduce the quantity, but we cannot be without vegetables. So we eat what we can afford.”R Mahalakshmi said, “These days it costs us Rs 50 to make a vegetarian meal for a family of four, as the price of all vegetables has doubled.”Mallika, a homemaker from Kandan Chavadi, who comes to the Thiruvanmiyur market once a week to buy vegetables for her family of five, said, “Two months ago we spent an average of Rs 500 a month on vegetables. In the past two months it has gone up to Rs 1,200 a month.”She showed her bag, with vegetables worth Rs 200 from the market, and said, “This will hardly last for three days. But I cannot come to the market to buy vegetables every other day. So I end up buying vegetables from the small shops nearby.”Compared to the wholesale Koyembedu market, even other markets spread across the city sell the vegetables at a price differential of Rs 5 to Rs 10 per kg.Cauliflower, which costs Rs 10 in Koyambedu market, is sold at Rs 20 in Thiruvanmiyur vegetable market, while the cart vendor sells it for Rs 30. Vel Raj, a cauliflower dealer at Thiruvanmiyur market, said, “Last month out of every hundred people who walked into the market 90 bought cauliflower, now only 40 of them buy it.”Even as he was speaking three customers came in, asked the price of cauliflower and walked away without buying.Amudha Ganesan, who runs a DTP Centre and believes in buying vegetables from the market, said, “All businesses thrive due to the laziness of people. People have become creatures of comfort, they want everything at their doorstep. They have a problem going to the market to buy things. Then they have to pay a higher price to get it. Who should be blamed here?”
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