FARMERS HIT BY LOW PRICES OF VEGETABLES

The traders at the Dambulla Economic Centre and other main Economic Centres lament at the low wholesale prices of vegetables. “Despite the wholesale prices being very low, retail prices of these vegetables are high,” they said.

The traders claimed that farmers brought in low-country vegetables right throughout the day, to these economic centres and with the poor turnout of buyers a large amount of these vegetables remained unsold.

Some of the traders were of the view that with the importation of gingelly, cowpea, kurakkan and soya, those who cultivated them had been encouraged to grow vegetables.

“This has led to a hitherto unseen harvest of many low-country vegetables, like brinjals, cucumber, tomatoes, long beans, radish and pumpkin. This eventually led to a drop in the prices. These vegetables are generally within Rs 5 to 25 a kilo on wholesale price,” a farmer said.

In some areas, there is a glut of pumpkin, which has not moved out creating the issue of storing them.

Farmers lamented that after spending on fuel, fertiliser and labour, the market prices did not give enough in return for the expenditure incurred.

Meanwhile, sources said that large leftover stocks of vegetables brought from Jaffna, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Matale are piled up the following morning and dumped away as food for wild elephants.