Rythu Bazar in hyderabad footfalls dip as vegetable prices soar

Hyderabad: The impact of pandemic on Rythu Bazars is reflecting in footfalls as consumers are not coming forward to make purchases in view of soaring prices. Besides, need for social distancing and Covid fears are also keeping them away, with the result that the Rythu Bazars have lost at least 15 per cent of the regular consumers after the lockdown.

These consumers are preferring to shop online or purchasing vegetables in the nearby supermarkets. "We used to have an average footfall of around 8,000 to 10,000 consumers everyday and during the lockdown the footfall has drastically decreased to 2,000 to 2,500 consumers each day and currently we are observing an average footfall up to 6,000 consumers.

We are still struggling to get back the footfall and also we hope we will recover completely in the next two weeks," said Sudhakar, Executive Officer, Kukatpally, Rythu Bazar.

Hyderabad has 11 functional Rythu Bazars located at Kukatpally, Erragadda, Yellammabanda , Alwal, R K Puram, Medipally, Vanasthalipuram, Meerpet, Saroornagar, Mehdipatnam and Falukanama and the status of footfall in all the Rythu Bazars are observed the same.

Moreover, it is observed that prices of vegetables are also rapidly increasing. For Instance, price of tomatoes on August 1 was around Rs 16 per kg and now the price has doubled to Rs 30 per kg. The same goes with green chillies it was 16 per kg on Aug 1 and now it is costing Rs 40 which is 60 per cent higher than the previous price.

Moreover, Vegetable prices in Rythu Bazars will always be 25 per cent extra on the prices of wholesale prices at Bowenpally market. Explaining the price variations, officials say, "If the price of a vegetable is below Rs 25 in wholesale market an extra Rs 3 will be added while selling at Rythu Bazars. If the price of a vegetable is above Rs 25 in wholesale market an extra Rs 5 will be added."

In general, the farmers within the radius of 20 km directly sell their produce at Rythu Bazars. Around 7,000 quintals of vegetables arrive at the Bazars daily. About 25 per cent produce is procured from self-help groups.

SHGs purchase produce from wholesale markets and sell in Rythu Bazars. A majority of these groups target unseasonal vegetables like potato, onion, yam, carrot, spill bean and others.