Vegetable supply to Dambulla falls by a third as dry spell bites

Sri Lanka is beginning to face a shortage of vegetables as the current dry spell continues, traders say.

Daily supply to the Dambulla Economic Centre — the country’s largest wholesale vegetable market — has fallen by 200,000kg in recent days, dropping from 600,000kg to 400,000kg, according to C. A. Siriwardene, president of the Dambulla Economic Centre Traders Association. He attributed the decline to the dry spell and to the unavailability of fertiliser.

Wholesale prices at the centre put capsicum at Rs. 500 to Rs. 550 a kilo and carrot at Rs. 230 to Rs. 250. Brinjal is selling at Rs. 350 a kilo, drumsticks at Rs. 150 to Rs. 200 and pumpkin at Rs. 115.

S. M. Upasena, former president of the Manning Market Traders Association, also said the country appears to be entering a shortage, blaming the weather. “The farmers have become reluctant to cultivate vegetables at the moment as water levels of reservoirs and tanks are dropping,” he told the Daily Mirror.

Upasena said prices are nonetheless unlikely to rise much, because demand is weak. “The demand for vegetables are on the lower side as people do not have much cash even to spend for their essentials,” he said — an assessment that points to household budgets, rather than supply, setting the ceiling on prices.

He warned that the structural problem with vegetables is the absence of any buffer stock. Unlike rice or sugar, fresh produce cannot be stored against a shortfall, and he said the issue could reach serious proportions.

The reported drop in supply is consistent with conditions elsewhere. The Department of Wildlife is trucking water into Wilpattu National Park after tanks in its eastern zone ran dry, and meteorologists have warned that El Niño conditions could bring further below-average rainfall.