Vegetable prices continue their rise

The prices of certain vegetables, fruits and dry foods have skyrocketed in price pushing the price of many of these items to over Rs. 500 per kilo much beyond the reach of the common man.

By Shezna Shums



Foods that cost the consumer dearly are red onions which range from Rs. 400 to Rs 600 a kilo, dried sprats that cost between Rs. 500 to Rs. 700 a kilo and green chilies that cost anything between Rs. 500 and Rs. 750 a kilo.

These prices had been obtained from Supermarkets and Laksathosa outlets by the research unit of the Consumer Affairs Authority last Friday.

The high prices of food items are the result of the heavy rains that lashed some parts of Sri Lanka over the past two weeks or so, destroying crops while the shortage is due to the delay in transporting them from wholesale markets due to the roads being impassable.

Even with regard to the cost of other vegetables, many of them cost over Rs. 150 a kilo in the local markets and supermarkets.

As the prices of vegetables are high and unaffordable, long queues of people are seen at the mobile stalls set up by the Army to sell vegetables. The prices of the vegetables sold by the Army remain reasonable due to the fact that the cost of transportation is borne by the Army and not added to the final retail price.  Another reason for the lower price is the fact that the middle man has been eliminated as the Army buys the vegetable directly from the farmer and sells them to the consumer.

Furthermore dry rations such as dhall costs over Rs. 139, Green gram costs over Rs. 150 and white sugar costs over Rs. 90. These prices are for a kilo of the commodity and had been recorded from Laksathosa outlets; such outlets being operated to provide food items at reasonable prices to the public.

A 425 gramme tin of canned fish costs the consumer Rs. 180 at the Laksathosa outlets while outside it costs over Rs.200.

The price of coconut continues to remain high and even at the Manning Market a small coconut was being sold for Rs. 58 last week.

According to the CAA a kilo of leeks cost over Rs. 160, a kilo of carrots over Rs. 170, a kilo of ladies finger over Rs. 90, a kilo of tomatoes over Rs. 90 and a kilo of snake guard cost over Rs 170. These prices had been recorded from supermarkets.

In the case of eggs, Laksathosa sells an egg at Rs. 12 but in the supermarkets an egg remains as high as Rs. 18.

Despite the high prices of almost all items, the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) which comes under the Ministry of Cooperatives and Internal Trade has received requests for increases in the price of milk powder and LPG gas.

The Lanka India Oil Company too has sought CAA’s approval to increase the price of petrol by Rs. 15, and diesel by Rs. 5. The future certainly looks bleak for the common man.

Floods caused crop damage runs high

By Shezna Shums

A sizable extent of the target of 804,104 hectares of land to be brought under paddy cultivation during Maha in 2010 and 2011 has been damaged by the heavy rains earlier this month.

Of the targeted extent, 92 per cent or 739,501 hectares had actually been brought under cultivation as at December 2010.  According to an assessment made by the Crop Forecasting Unit of the Socio Economic and Planning Center, Department of Agriculture Peradeniya, the rains have destroyed a total of 121,303 hectares or 16.4 percent of the cultivated paddy lands.

The expected yield from the cultivated land was 2.9 million metric tonnes and the estimated production loss due to the flood damage is in the range of 450,000 metric tonnes which is a 15.5 per cent of the expected yield.

Thus the revised production forecast for the season is now calculated at 2.45 million metric tonnes of paddy.

Regarding Other Field Crops (OFC) the progress in cultivation stood at 116, 880 hectares, and this was 64 percent of the target.

When compared with the previous Maha Seasons, this season, crops such as maize, green gram and black gram should show a four percent, 33 percent and 83 percent increase respectively.

In addition, both up-country and low-country vegetables show an achievement of 64 percent and 52 percent respectively.

However estimates worked out following the floods show that 7,644 hectares of OFC and 1,400 hectares of vegetable cultivations have been damaged by the floods during the season.

Damage to paddy cultivation has mainly been reported from the Eastern, North Central, Northern and Central Provinces.

The major commercial paddy producing districts have severely been affected due to recent floods highlighted the crop forecast report from the Department of Agriculture, Peradeniya.

The highest crop damage is reported from Batticaloa District running to 49,000 hectares which is 82 percent of the extent sown with paddy.

The other major flood affected districts include Ampara, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Trincomalee.

As the crop damage suffered is high in commercial paddy producing districts, the reduction of commercial stocks could affect the seasonal supply levels of rice.

Nevertheless an improvement in commercial stocks could be expected from Kurunegala, Hambantota, Moneragala and Mahaweli areas.

The estimates relating to crop damage declared by the Department of Agriculture, Peradeniya takes into account the information provided by the Provincial Departments of Agriculture, Mahaweli Authority, Extension and Training Division of Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Management Centre, Department of Agriculture and Department of Irrigation. The forecasts of the crops are based on the average yield of past three seasons.