Vegetable and fruit prices at Pune’s Gultekdi wholesale market have fallen in recent weeks. An LPG shortage forcing hotels and eateries to shut down or reduce operations, export disruptions caused by the Iran-US-Israel conflict, and an early monsoon forecast pushing farmers toward premature harvests have together hammered demand, leaving traders and farmers staring at mounting losses.
Traders say hotels and restaurants account for the bulk of wholesale purchases of vegetables and fruit in the city. With kitchens shutting or scaling back, market demand has collapsed, and the surplus has only grown as produce redirected from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) adds to an already oversupplied market.
Vegetable traders take the hit
Kiran Raykar, a vegetable trader at Gultekdi, says the impact has been severe across nearly every commodity he handles. “Several traders here depend heavily on Pune’s hotel industry. But with the LPG shortage, many eateries have either reduced their capacity or shut completely,” he said.
Demand has dropped for a wide basket of vegetables like onions, tomatoes, potatoes, leafy greens like spinach and coriander, ginger, green chillies, cabbage, okra, lemon, carrot, cucumber, and garlic. At the same time, supply from farmers has remained steady, and produce redirected from JNPA has only added to the glut.
The price cuts have been stark. According to the traders, cabbage, a staple for Chinese eateries making gobi manchurian, has seen hotel purchase orders crash from around 100 kg to just 20 kg. Its price has dropped from Rs 10 per kg to around Rs 6. Potatoes, the backbone of popular street food like pav bhaji, dosa, and vada pav, have seen demand fall by nearly 50 per cent with the closure of such stalls, and prices have slid from Rs 15 to Rs 10-12 per kg. Tomatoes have dropped from Rs 16 to Rs 11 per kg.
Cucumbers, which typically command strong prices during summer, have not been spared either. “Cucumbers usually give us good returns in this season, but with demand collapsing, rates have fallen from Rs 15 to Rs 12 per kg,” Raykar said.
Raykar said that if hotel operations do not resume soon, prices could fall further, dealing deeper losses to both farmers and traders.
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Fruit market struggles
The fruit segment at Gultekdi is facing a similar squeeze, compounded by the end of Ramzan, which typically drives up fruit consumption.
Suyog Zende, a fruit trader, said the combined effect of hotel closures, post-Ramzan demand slowdown, and export disruptions has been severe, particularly for watermelons. “Watermelon rates have crashed from Rs 25 per kg before the war to just Rs 8 per kg,” he said. “In one case, a farmer from Sangli sold an entire container of watermelons at Rs 5 per kg just to cut his losses, while several tonnes of watermelon were dumped at Vashi’s APMC market last week.”
Adding to the supply pressure, an early monsoon forecast has pushed farmers in Sangli, Bhor, Solapur, Latur, and surrounding villages near Pune to harvest watermelons, grapes, and muskmelons prematurely.
“Premature harvests mean shorter shelf lives – making it risky to transport fruit to distant markets in Delhi or other parts of North or South India. As a result, this produce is being diverted to Pune and Mumbai, inflating local supply at a time when demand is weak,” he said.
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Mangoes, too, have taken a hit. “Prices that stood at around Rs 14,000 per box of five to six dozen during Gudi Padwa have now fallen to Rs 8,000-9,000 per box. Grapes are selling at Rs 60-70 per kg. Demand for apples has also softened,” added Zende.
Lemon market squeezed
Lemon traders are also facing the heat, given that March to May is the peak demand season for the fruit.
Rohan Jadhav, a lemon trader at Gultekdi, says his daily sales have roughly halved since eateries began closing. “We used to sell around 1,000-1,200 bags of 20 kg each every day. That has now come down to 600-700 bags,” he said. Hotels account for nearly 70 per cent of his business.
Prices have followed the same downward trend. A 20-kg bag of lemons, which ranged from Rs 500 to Rs 2,200 depending on quality before the war, has now dropped to Rs 300-1,700 per bag. Jadhav, however, noted that retail prices at some locations in the city remain high and largely unregulated, determined independently by individual retailers.
