Friday, 22 April 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The considerable rise in the rates of lemon in Dehradun and other parts of the state is leaving a major dent in the day-to-day kitchen budget of many people. With the price of the citrus item reaching Rs 250 and more for a kilogramme, people have reduced their purchase of lemons.
The Agricultural Produce Market Committee secretary Vijay Thapliyal said, “These lemons usually come from places like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, so the high transportation cost of delivering these lemons, the heavy rains in the months of September and October, and the sudden rise in temperature post February causing the younger fruits to drop easily, have all been the reasons why there is this rise in the price of lemons.”
This rise in lemon prices has also affected the street vendors. Shravan Kumar, a vegetable vendor at the Nehru Colony Mandi said, “Earlier we used to sell at least 20 kilogrammes of lemon per day but now we are barely able to sell five kilogrammes in a day. We don’t really know why the price of lemons rose so suddenly. People who have lemon soda stalls or restaurants buy these lemons sometimes but otherwise people usually just buy one piece of lemon which we sell for Rs 10-15.”
The effects of this price hike of lemons can also be seen at the roadside lemon soda stalls. Rahul Kumar, a young juice vendor who runs a stall near the Rispana bridge said,“We used to sell a glass of lemon soda for Rs 20 earlier but because of this price hike we now sell it for Rs 30. We are buying a lesser number of lemons and just hope it lasts the whole day.”
