Most of the winter vegetable prices declined notably last week giving consumers some relief thanks to surge in supply in recent days.
Prices of most of the seasonal vegetables, leafy, early harvested potatoes, and onion showed a plunge during the period.
Only tomatoes and carrots were still much pricier in the market as their harvest was yet to begin in full swing.
Seasonal cauliflower and cabbage were sold at Tk 30-45 a piece, winter brinjal Tk 30-40 a kilogram (kg), radish Tk 25-35, country bean Tk 30-50 a kg, long yard bean Tk 35-45, cucumber Tk 40-50 a kg, all kinds of leafy at Tk 7.0-20 a bunch, green papaya Tk 30-40, bottle gourd Tk 40-50 a piece, and turnip at Tk 30-40 a kg on Thursday.
Off-season veggies like bitter gourds, pointed gourds, snake gourds, sponge gourds and colocasia stems were static as sold at Tk 50-Tk 70 a kg.
Newly harvested potato prices declined to Tk 55-65 a kg while stored potatoes were sold at Tk 43-50 a kg.
Stored tomatoes were sold as high as at Tk 100-110 a kg while newly harvested ripen tomatoes were retailed at Tk 130-140 a kg.
Meanwhile, green tomatoes were sold at Tk 50-60 a kg on Thursday.
Razzaque Ali, a vegetable wholesaler at the Rayerbazar-Beribadh area, said supply has been increasing gradually amid the beginning of harvest in full swing in the hubs.
He said prices also declined notably at farms' end in Tangail, Manikganj, Narsingdi, Cumilla, Bogura, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Jashore and elsewhere in the country.
He said their sales volume has increased as low-income groups have also started buying veggies.
Assistant Director of Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) Mojibor Rahman said prices of vegetables will remain cheaper for the next one and a half months if it does not rain.
He said the supply of veggies usually remains high between mid-December and January in the country.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) targeted to produce 14.0 million tonnes of winter vegetables on 0.58 million hectares of land this financial year.
DAE's monitoring and evaluation unit officials said harvesting has begun on 40 per cent of lands so far.
