Who's adding to your food bills?

Food inflation hit 17 per cent last month. The common man has almost resigned to the fact of steady price rise. But farmers are none the richer. MiD DAY aims to fill the gaps from the farmer's hand till your plate As you sit for dinner every night, in your office canteen, at your desk, or your dining table with family, you wonder why it has been costing you as much as it has been lately.u00a0Whether you're ordering in, lunching out, or buying groceries to cook at home, you feel your food expenses have been biting a bigger chunk out of the income every passing week.What is up with the veggies anyway, you idly muse, and move about your business until the next meal. But honestly, the mad rise in vegetable prices in the last months is actually food for thought.u00a0It has amounted to a cumulative price increase of over 40 per cent in the last two years. So as the Finance Minister expresses grave concern about inflation hitting 17.5 per cent for the week that ended January 22, and dinner-table conversations come to be dominated by glum predictions of where the economy is headed, MiD DAY ventures out to find what is exactly happening.You may be aware that a farmer actually sells his produce at a minimal price. But by the time it reaches your dining table, the price assumes a manifold increase. Feel free to blame the bevy of middlemen. Flourishing as a thriving business, what may be called the vegetable mafia, on account of the intermediaries, is responsible for anywhere from a three to four-fold rise in the prices of the fruits and vegetables you purchase. Go-between the linesAn on-field investigation by a MiD DAY team made this abundantly clear. A trip to Pimpalgaon in Nashik, one of Asia's largest onion fields, revealed that a kilo of onions is being sold at Rs 6 here.u00a0While in the city, it was only last week that the prices of onions fell to an affordable Rs 25 per kg from figures much closer to touching three digits.Before that, when onion prices hit a century in the city, these farmers were selling them for Rs 30 a kg. The paradox ceases to be intriguing when you consider that a huge margin of profit is pocketed by the army of brokers and transporters.Consider cauliflower. A small bag of 10 cauliflowers is priced at around Rs 20 at Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Nashik. That is Rs 2 for a regular cauliflower. In the city this week, it sold at Rs 20 for a kilo or two medium-sized vegetables. There is almost a 60 to 80 per cent hike in vegetable prices by the time the plucked product is loaded on to a small vehicle on its way to the AMPC and eventually to your neighbourhood grocer/ supermarket.So you end up paying anything between Rs 60 and Rs 200 for a serving of aloo gobi, when it is finally dished out in restaurants.No one's happyThe monthly grocery bill of a middle class household in the city has increased by at least 30 per cent in the last couple of years. But the farmers continue to draw the same minimal profits that they did, even before inflation splashed onto the headlines of national papers in two digits.Said Ashok Golap, a farmer from the village of Pimplad near Nashik, We don't understand this paradox. Everybody in the vegetable and food business makes money except the farmers.Nor does Mrs Venkatraman from Matunga. Everything costs more, from vegetables to fruits to spices. My monthly budget has increased by 35 per cent as compared to mid-2009, she lamented.In fact, a large number of gullible farmers around Nashik found it hard to believe that the vegetables bought from them at measly amounts are retailed at three times the prices.Even restaurateurs are losing business and lamenting losses. Hotelier Ashok Pujari has confessed that he was forced to increase the price of a 'vegetable lunch plate' from Rs 45 in 2009 to Rs 60 in the past few months to make a marginal profit. Our regular customers don't complain as they are aware of the steep price rise, said Pujari. But our clientele is declining as more and more people either prefer to pack food from home or are looking for cheaper options, he pointed out.u00a0As to why the prices of vegetables are not controlled, making life for a Mumbaikar difficult, the answer lies in the policies the government hammers out and the measures it takes now. MiD DAY will explore these features in the series to follow.In a month-long extensive campaign, MiD DAY will trace the tangle of farmer-middleman-hoarder-politician nexus that is ultimately leaving a sour taste in your mouth.There is almost a 60 to 80 per cent hike in vegetable prices by the time the plucked product is loaded on to a small vehicle on its way to the AMPC and eventually to your neighbourhood supermarket

Who's adding to your food bills?

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