Published On : Thu, Jun 16th, 2016

Jab aloo tamatar ho jaaye mahange, toh log khaye ande!!

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Lekin jab ande bhi ho jaaye mahange, to phir kya khayenge bachche??

Sabji Mandi
Nagpur:
As predicted by Nagpur Today, rates of tomatoes have climbed up more today touching Rs. 80/ per Kg in retail and will definitely go up more.

Potatoes that were selling at Rs. 20/ yesterday, have gone to Rs. 25/ already.

” When other vegetables, like seasonals and greens get expensive, people turn to eating more potatoes. These days, I sell about 50 – 60Kgs everyday.Rates will definitely go up more, may be upto Rs. 30/ ” says Anil, a popular sabziwalla from Laxmi Nagar. He is wrong – experts opine rates will go to Rs. 40/ easily.

Another commodity that is gaining in popularity all over the city is also gaining in cost – eggs have already become dearer by 30 to 40 paisa per egg. So what was selling at Rs. 4 till recently had climbed to 4.50 and today stands at Rs. 5 per egg.

This information was given by Ganesh Lalwani, a whole sale and retailer of eggs in Nagpur.

“Eggs are typically sold in units of 100. The current whole sale rate is Rs. 410 per 100. There are damages in transport ( by cycle riksha) so the landed cost for us at our shop is Rs. 450/ or 4.50 per egg. We sell at Rs. 5.00. This price will surely go up to Rs. 6 per egg shortly” says Lalwani.

One reason that costs have gone up is scarcity of hens. It’s known that people in general avoid eating eggs, and specially feeding them to children in summers. This is due to a notion that eggs are ‘hot’ in summer and will add to body heat. But they seem to have no such misgivings for hens! Thus, demand for eggs going down, results in more hens being cut for food in summers. It also being holiday season, people ‘party’ more, go in for more hotel outings and more chicken is consumed. So there is a natural shortage of eggs this season. But this year, rising prices of vegetables will add to their demand and naturally traders and merchants will cash in on this.

Nagpur daily gets 20 to 25 truckloads of eggs from Hyderabad. Believe it or not, each truck, specially made to cart eggs, carries approx 4.5 lakh eggs!

“If transport cost is not minimized, eggs could easily go upto Rs. 7 per egg” says Ganesh.

Though Nagpur traders are not aware, the threat of H1N1 has been detected in some places in Karnataka. (H1N1 or swine flu is caused by virus that is carried by birds, like chicken and other animals like pigs). When this virus strikes, the safest course is to ‘cull’ all the chicken on the farm. That is kill them en masse. If this virus spreads to Hyderabad, it could further play havoc for poultry products, like eggs.

Another city that has come up a lot in the poultry business in the last decade is Raipur is Chattisgarh. Nagpur, being a very large market in itself and also being a supplier for rest of Vidarbha is a lucrative selling destination.

Unfortunately, the poultry business has not flourished in Nagpur due to our high summer temperatures and killing cost of power. Poultry farms these days are so mechanized and so power dependent that an average size farm has to have at least 4 generators for back up. A power outage of even 15 minutes can mean loss of huge live stocks.

On the other hand Nagpurians not just consume eggs at home – Saoji anda curry is fast becoming as popular as saoji mutton, and anda bhurji is a very popular ‘chawanu’ – but ‘omlette and bread’ stalls can be found at every square and nukkad.

Will this healthy – egg contains proteins and calcium – food also become unaffordable for ‘aam admi’ soon?