Drumstick costliest in Chennai market

Chennai: Vegetable and poultry prices are expected go do­wn in December. To­mato prices which were at a hi­gh a week back have subsided with better supply and drumstick seems to have been the costliest veg­etable in market for over a month.

Tomatoes, priced at Rs 40 a week back, sold for Rs 25 at the Koyambedu wholesale market as on Tue­sday. V.R. Soundar­yar­ajan, a trader at the market, says, “Better supplies from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh trigge­red the change in price.”

Drumsticks has been the costliest vegetable for over a month now, priced at Rs 60 to Rs 70 a kg. The pr­ices continued to remain the same at the wholesale market this week too. Soundaryarajan exp­l­ained, “It is due to the lack of good supplies. Dr­u­msticks are from TN alone. We expect the prices to fall by January.”

Poultry prices are also expected to fall by almost 20 per cent. The religious season of Karthigai is said to be pushing the prices down. With most of the people not opting for poultry, there is less of a demand in the market.

G. Pughalenthi, general secretary, Chennai poultry wholesale association, says, “The retail prices for poultry as of yesterday was Rs 130 a kg. We expect the prices to go further down in the coming days. But after Chr­istmas, the demand wo­uld surge.”