Wholesale prices of the salad vegetables traded locally as “Chinese vegetables” have risen sharply, with traders attributing the increase to a decline in greenhouse cultivation in the Welimada, Haputale and Nuwara Eliya areas.
Wholesalers at the Nuwara Eliya Specialised Economic Centre said a kilogram of broccoli had reached Rs. 3,600 as of Tuesday, the Daily Mirror reported.
Wholesale prices at the Nuwara Eliya centre
| Vegetable | Price per kg |
|---|---|
| Broccoli | Rs. 3,600 |
| Red bell pepper | Rs. 2,500 – 2,600 |
| Yellow bell pepper | Rs. 2,100 – 2,600 |
| Red cabbage | Rs. 1,000 – 1,100 |
| Mint | Rs. 900 – 1,000 |
| Basil | Rs. 600 – 700 |
These are wholesale rates at a single collection point, not retail shelf prices, which are typically higher.
Why the upcountry matters here
The crops concerned are grown almost entirely in the three upcountry localities named — a concentration that leaves the supply of each one exposed to conditions in a small area. Traders said the reduction in greenhouse cultivation there had cut the volumes reaching the centre and pushed wholesale prices up.
Greenhouse, or protected, cultivation is used in these hill-country districts to shield high-value vegetables from heavy rain and pests and to grow them outside their natural season. It carries a higher upfront cost than open-field planting.
Not reported
The filing does not say why greenhouse cultivation has declined — whether because of input costs, weather damage, credit, or growers switching crops — and does not give the scale of the fall, in either acreage or number of growers. It gives no earlier price for comparison, so the size of the increase cannot be measured from the report, and it carries no comment from the Department of Agriculture or from growers themselves. No other verified newsroom had carried the story at the time of writing.