News
Vegetable woes lead to disparities between wholesale and retail prices
View(s):- By Kanchana Kumara Aariyadasa and K.R Rajamanthri
A wide gap between wholesale and retail vegetable prices is currently being observed.
While wholesale prices continue to drop at sourcing hubs, retail prices remain high by the time the produce reaches the consumer.
Consumers told the Sunday Times that when the vegetables reach the people the prices are high. 
Factors of demand and supply, transportation, intervention of middle men as well as tactics used by merchants all play a role in the increase in retail prices.
Dambulla Economic Centre Traders Association President C.S. Siriwardena explained that vegetable prices fluctuate due to supply and demand and these days the Dambulla economic center is not getting adequate stocks of good produce.
According to him the quality of vegetables is dropping as the crops from multiple farmers are being crammed into single hired vehicles, as fewer transporters are willing to navigate roads damaged by Cyclone Ditwah. He also added that the produce gets damaged as the vehicles travel on uneven terrain of the damaged roads.
“Previously business transactions took place between the farmer and merchant, now the produce goes through several middlemen and since each of them keeps a profit margin, by the time the vegetables reach consumers the prices have soared.
Meanwhile a vegetable wholesale merchant at the Dambulla economic centre, S. Keyaas said that prices cannot be controlled as the transport cost is also added to the price by the time it reaches the consumer.
“It does not matter whether the vegetable amount is less, but to get those vegetbles to reach internal markets the merchants spend a lot on transport,” he said.
He also pointed out that the lack of facilities to preserve the harvested produce when a large harvest is collected, forces farmers to sell vegetables at low prices when the harvest is plentiful and increase the prices when the demand is high yet the harvest is poor.
Meanwhile farmers from the Welimada area pointed out that the adverse weather conditions had affected the potato harvest.
They said that the role of the middle man also affects vegetable price fluctuations and creates a disparity between whole sale and retail prices.
Farmers and merchants in both areas said if the government implements a mechanism to preserve vegetables, and sets up a data base on the required amount of cultivation and a divides the amounts and variety of vegetables among groups of farmers it could reduce shortages and excess of produce.
They also call for an improvement of transportation facilities and government intervention to reduce the intervention of middlemen.
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