Vegetables’ retail, wholesale price gap over 53 percent: Assocham

New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS) The rate difference between wholesale and retail prices of essential vegetables went up over 53 percent in the three-month period between November 2015 to January 2016, as against 50.4 percent during the same period last year, business chamber Assocham said on Sunday.

"Disparity between wholesale price and retail prices for essential vegetables like brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower went up beyond 53.3 percent during November 2015 to January 2016 which was 50.4 percent as compared to the same period last year, according to a recent Assocham paper," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said in a release here.

It said the study shows that the majority of Indian retailers are selling vegetables at prices which are significantly higher than the wholesale price index (WPI) 2016.

"Normally, the difference between wholesale and retail prices on an average stays around 30 percent but it has been much more as seen in the findings of the paper," Assocham said.

The study has considered nearly 28 market centres in India including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Lasalgaon, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nasik, Patna, Pimpalgaon, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Shimla, Srinagar and Thiruvananthapuram, and found most recorded huge difference between wholesale and retail prices.

Out of the 28 centres, 11 centres are charging more than all India average retail prices and wholesale prices, the study found. The retail prices are over and above 53.3 percent to the wholesale prices during November 2015 to January 2016, the study showed.

The top centres charging more than 50 percent retail prices than wholesale prices include Hyderabad (132.3 percent) followed by Mumbai (94.7 percent), Ahmedabad (92.5 percent), Amritsar (91.4 percent), Delhi (86.3 percent), Dehradun (84.5 percent), Chandigarh (84.1 percent), Kolkata (74.4 percent), Patna (65 percent) and Ranchi (62.1 percent).