The relatively low prices of vegetables, fruits, and flowers in the city’s markets seem to have increased the festival fervour this season.
Most markets across the city saw huge footfall over the weekend, especially Sunday on the eve of the Gauri Ganesha festival on Monday.
K.R. Market was jam-packed on Sunday. However, the market is no longer the only hub for festival shopping and several areas like Gandhi Bazaar, Malleswaram, Rajajinagar, Jayanagar, among others, were bustling with people thronging to buy Ganesha idols, fresh mango leaves, banana stems apart from flowers, fruits, and vegetables.
Many who had expected the prices to be steep like every festival, were pleasantly surprised at the relatively cheaper prices on the eve of the festival.
“I was shocked to find a kilo of sevantige flowers, the staple for the festival puja being sold as low as ₹60 to ₹80 a kilo. Even a few weeks ago during the Varamahalskhmi festival, it was over ₹400 a kilo,” said Padmavathi, a homemaker from Vidyaranyapura.
G.M. Diwakar, a leading flower merchant in K.R. Market, said that there was a glut of sevantige (crysanthumum) flowers in the market, leading to a crash in its prices.
“Owing to delayed rains, the harvest of the flower has been delayed by nearly one-and-a-half months and now there is a glut. A kilo of the flower is trading at less than ₹40 in the wholesale market,” he said.
However, the prices of other flowers like jasmine buds and kanakambara have almost doubled compared to two weeks ago for the festival, he said.
Meanwhile, the prices of most vegetables, except beans, are in the lower range, said one of the senior officials of a chain grocery store in the city.
“Tomatoes continue to be sold below ₹10 and the prices of most other vegetables are in the lower range only. The price of beans which had also fallen to below ₹40 levels have improved to ₹70 levels on Sunday,” he said.
Among fruits, banana (yelakki variety), another staple for the festival, is trading at nearly the ₹100 mark per kg, even as apples have also become pricey.
However, the price of a kilo of yelakki bananas was ₹180 during the Varamahalakshmi festival. Meanwhile, the prices of most other fruits are relatively lower during this time of the year, industry insiders said.
