India: Tomatoes at Rs 100 was just the beginning, chillies hit Rs 400/kg

Days after surging tomato prices across the country set forth a sour discourse, reports have emerged of chilli and ginger prices rising to nearly Rs 400 per kg in certain parts of India. While in Chennai, green chilli prices retailed at Rs 100 per kg, prices of green chillies and ginger have touched Rs 350 per kg in Kolkata, TOI reported.The reason for the increase was the drastic drop in the arrival of chillies over the past few days, TOI quoted Koyambedu wholesale market trader T Muthukumar.In the last week , the quantity of green chillies came down to barely 80 tonnes whereas Chennai's daily requirement stands at around 200 tonnes. The demand is primarily met by arrivals from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. However, the low supply of green chillies has sparked a surge in demand and hike in the prices. Farmers in Andhra Pradesh failed to get a good price for their chillies in the last harvest due to which they shifted to produce other crops. As a result, the green chillies ...