Whenever the weather has turned bad this month, the price of green chillies has gone up. After several days of continuous rain in particular, the price rises as high as Tk 200 a kg, and it falls again when the rain eases.

After continuous rain, for example, green chillies reached Tk 200 a kg on 17 July. The price then fell to Tk 120 as the weather improved somewhat, but it has risen again with fresh rain. In some small markets in the capital green chillies are selling for as much as Tk 280 a kg.

Bachhed Mollah, a long-time green chilli wholesaler at the Karwan Bazar arat in the capital, sold green chillies at Tk 150-160 a kg on the afternoon of 21 July.

He told Jagonews: "It has been raining in the villages for two days, so the market is bad. Prices rose once last Wednesday and Thursday, then eased a little, and are now rising again. Green chilli is highly perishable, and its price goes up and down with the rain. It changes in the market every day."

"If rainwater stands in the field for a few days, the chillies rot," he said. "That cuts supply to the market, and the price goes up."

In Dhaka's retail markets green chillies are no longer available below Tk 200 a kg. At Segunbagicha market, 250 grams were selling for Tk 60-70.

Muazzim, a trader at Segunbagicha market, said: "Just two days ago I sold a poa (250 grams) of green chillies for Tk 40. The price also went up about a week ago, when continuous rain and floods cut vegetable supplies, and green chilli rose along with other vegetables. It came down a bit later, but now it has risen again with more rain."

Rain and floods have waterlogged vegetable fields in different parts of the country and destroyed many crops, so vegetable supplies to the market have still not returned to normal. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department has forecast another five days of continuous rain across the country, and it is raining in Dhaka and elsewhere.

Because of the flooding caused by continuous rain, vegetable prices have also been rising for several days, by Tk 20-40 a kg.

Market visits show that almost all vegetables cost more than last week. Brinjal, which sold at Tk 70-80 a kg at retail, now sells at Tk 100-120 depending on quality and type. Ridge gourd, snake gourd and sponge gourd have risen from Tk 50-60 to Tk 70-80 a kg.

Bitter gourd, which was Tk 60-70 a kg, now sells at Tk 90-100, and yard-long beans have risen from Tk 70-80 to Tk 100 a kg. Among the cheaper vegetables, papaya, okra and pointed gourd sell at Tk 50-60 a kg.

Farm eggs, whose price had been stable for some time, have also become quite expensive: they now sell at Tk 140 a dozen, up from Tk 125-130.

Buyers and sellers said that when vegetable prices are high, consumers rely on eggs. That raises demand, and higher demand pushes up the price.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.