Vegetables prices, which had witnessed a series of hikes in the last couple of months, increased further in the city last week amid the ongoing flood that caused severe damage to crops in many producing hubs.
Prices of most of the vegetables soared by 50-80 per cent in the past week augmenting sufferings of the commoners already hit hard by the rising cost of many other essentials and struggling with decline in income due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prices of brinjal, one of the widely consumed vegs, shot up to Tk 90-110 per kg on Tuesday which was hardly Tk 60 a kg a week back.
Seasonal pointed gourds, sponge, ridge, teasel and snake gourds were selling at Tk 60-80 a kg, yard-long been Tk 80-90, cucumber Tk 50-70, eddo Tk 60, and medium sized bottle and ash gourd Tk 50-70 per piece yesterday, according to the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM).
Leafy of different species were sold at Tk 15-40 a bunch on the day.
Mint prices shot up to Tk 750-800 a kg which normally remained Tk 180-300 a kg throughout the year.
Green papaya was the cheapest vegg, selling at Tk 40-50 a kg on the day.
However, green chilli and tomato remained static at Tk 180-220 a kg and Tk 120-130 respectively.
Potato, which was already costly in the last one month, became dearer in the last seven days, as was traded at Tk 38-45 per kg based on varieties on Tuesday, a Tk 5.0 a kg hike.
Md Ekabbor, a vegetable trader at Sadeq Khan Agricultural Market in the city's Rayer Bazar-Beribadh area, said flood and heavy rain damaged veg fields in most of the key hubs this year.
He noted that flood water is yet to recede in many areas in Rangpur, Bogura, Pabna, Mymensingh, Dhaka, Faridpur and Cumilla districs.
Supply of the produces declined 30-40 per cent in last two weeks which pushed the prices further up, he mentioned.
He said brinjal prices are Tk 55-60 a kg in Narshindi and Bogura which were maximum Tk 30 a kg 14 days back.
He also said green chilli supply from domestic market declined more than by 80 per cent.
Imported green chilli, tomato and coriander leaf are meeting local demand for those veggies, he further said.
He added that veg prices might become higher even in the remaining part of this year as the producing regions still remained waterlogged.
However, the agriculture ministry has recorded that nearly 10,000 hectares of vegg fields have totally been damaged by the current flood while the farmers have counted a total of Tk 2.35 billion loss so far.
Apart from the veg, prices of onion and ginger also rose in one week.
Onion prices increased by Tk 5.0-6.0 per kg as was sold at Tk 30-40 (imported) and Tk 45-50 (local) on the day while ginger was traded at Tk 200-240 a kg.
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