Monday, 17 December 2012
DOHA: With the arrival of local produce at the Central Fruit and Vegetable Market, the prices of imported vegetables have come down considerably. A large number of people, including Qataris, were seen rushing to the market to buy more green and fresh vegetables directly coming from the local farms.
The prices of many imported vegetables that are also grown locally, during winter season, such as cucumber, okra (lady's finger), egg plant (brinjal), bitter gourd, pumpkin, beans, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower and green chillies and green leaves like spinach and coriander have gone down by 30-40 percent in the wholesale market.
"There is a stiff competition which has further narrowed down our profit margins. Due to the arrival of local produce, we are forced to sell the vegetables, imported from Saudi Arabia and other neighbouring states, at much cheaper rates than what we sold a few weeks ago," said a Bangladeshi trader who gave his name as Khairul Islam.
Local vegetables, being more green and fresh, are costlier than the imported ones, but not expensive enough to deter customers from buying them. Their freshness and better taste attract large number of retail customers from far off places.
"We have got bored of eating meat, fish and stale vegetables... I know fresh vegetables are a little expensive, but here in Qatar, we rarely get a chance to buy them. So this is a golden opportunity," said Farooq Ahmed, an Indian expatriate who came to the central market all the way from Bin Mahmood.
Local vegetables are about 20-30 percent more expensive than the imported ones. But a comparative analysis of the prices of some vegetables reveals that not all kinds of the local produce are expensive. For instance a box (4-5kg) of cucumber (both local as well as imported) is sold at QR7-QR8. Similarly, a box of local and imported brinjal (4-5kg) is available at QR10.
The comparison of prices of vegetables is a bit tiresome and arbitrary, given they are sold in a boxes. However, a box (six-seven kg) of local tomatoes was being sold at QR22-23, while the same box of tomatoes from Saudi Arabia is available at QR10-12
The local vegetables are sold at a separate platform at the market to differentiate them from the imported ones. The area selling local produce was more crowded with retail customers. While most of retail traders were seen buying imported vegetables being cheap.
"Prices have come down substantially in the recent past few weeks. But this is a normal phenomenon for us. Every year, with the arrival of winter season the market gets flooded with local supply pushing the prices of almost all the green vegetables down", a Bangladeshi vendor told this newspaper yesterday.
So with the arrival local produce one can expect the prices of vegetables to stabilise further in the days to come.
© The Peninsula 2012
