Pramod KC, a resident of Srijananagar in Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur, returned home with a kilogram of bottle gourd after being unable to find other fresh vegetables of his choice on Monday, September 30, morning.

“The same thing happened yesterday,” KC, who paid Rs 100 for the bottle gourd told the NBA. “The vendors are short of supply and the veggies have become expensive.”  

Prerana Acharya, a resident of Bagdol, Lalitpur, had to return empty-handed on Sunday as her regular vegetable vendor was out of stock.

“While most of the nearby stores were also quite empty, a few with vegetables were selling them at expensive rates,” said Acharya. “The scarcity and rising prices, especially with Dashain around the corner, are truly disheartening.”

Floods and landslides, following the continuous downpour from Thursday, September 26, to Saturday, September 28, wreaked havoc across the country.

The Kathmandu Valley recorded the highest-ever rainfall since the beginning of rain measurement in Nepal, according to the Weather Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.

Meteorologist Rojan Lamichhane reported that the Tribhuvan International Airport's Rain Measurement Center on Saturday morning recorded 239.7 mm of rain in 24 hours. This rainfall broke the previous record of 177 mm, set in 2002, he said.

Around 200 people have lost their lives, 30 have gone missing and at least 194 have been injured in floods and landslides until Monday, September 30, morning, according to police. Over 300 housing infrastructures were destroyed across the country, reported RSS, the state-owned news agency.

Most of the highways and major road networks, especially in eastern and central Nepal were disrupted, leaving passengers stranded along the roads. Following this interruption, the vegetable markets in the valley saw a massive drop in the supply last weekend. The Valley gets most of its vegetable demands fulfilled by the neighbouring districts. 

Binay Shrestha, the information officer at the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market Development Board, told NBA that the Kalimati market, the biggest vegetable market in the Valley, received only 157 tonnes of vegetables on Saturday, compared to the normal daily supply of 650 to 700 tonnes. The market was particularly impacted by the shortage of small tomatoes, red potatoes, dried onions, cabbage, mushrooms, cucumbers, ginger, chilies, eggplants, and spinach.

Most of the vegetable vendors in the Valley get their supply from vegetable markets such as Kalimati. So, it takes no time for vegetable prices to move up if there is a  shortage in such markets.

Also, the continuous downpour had inundated some vegetable markets such as Balkhu Agriculture and Vegetable Market, destroying fruits and vegetables worth millions.

It led to the steep rise in vegetable prices, which had already started to soar with the nearing of the festivals of Dashain, Tihar and Chhath. Dashain, the biggest festival in the country, begins on Thursday, October 3. 

Consumers worry if the upward trend will continue for a longer period. 

The food and beverage inflation in mid-August was 6.17 percent, down from 8.9 percent in the same month last year, according to Nepal Rastra Bank. Under the food and beverage category, the year-on-year price index of vegetable sub-category increased by 19.07 percent. 

Though the supply of vegetables to the Kalimati market increased to 180 tonnes on Sunday, according to Shrestha, the prices continued to surge on Monday.

According to data from the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market Development Board, onions, which were priced on average at Rs 111 per kg on Saturday, rose to Rs 130 by Monday. Local cabbage became dearer by Rs 40 per kg between Saturday and Monday. The price of a kilogram of carrots surged from Rs 110 on Saturday to Rs 190 on Sunday and Rs 226.67 on Monday.

The steep surge was also seen in the price of button mushrooms, which rose from Rs 300 per kg on Saturday to Rs 426.67 on Monday.

Gopal Chakradhar, a shopkeeper at Baber Mahal, Kathmandu told NBA that the prices of most of the vegetables have doubled in the past few days following the record-breaking rainfall.

“I was selling a sheaf of mustard leaves at Rs 80 before the rain, but it cost me Rs 150 today [Monday] morning,” said Chakradhar.

Another vegetable vendor at Thapathali seconded Chakradhar, adding that she could not get her supply of fresh vegetables on Sunday. “There is already a shortage,” she said.

The supply crunch has also led to the rise in fruit prices. 

Pawan Kumar Shah, a fruit vendor at Thapathali, told NBA that while apples and other fruits have become dearer by around Rs 25 per kg, sugarcane price has gone off the roof.

“Earlier 20 sticks of sugarcane used to cost us Rs 1,200,” said Shah, who gets most of his fruits from the market in Kuleshwor. “We, now, have to pay Rs 2,000.” 

Shah added that he could not get his supplies at Kuleshwar on Sunday as it was submerged by the rain the previous day. 

While Shrestha of Kalimati market claimed that the vegetable prices will fall from Tuesday, October 1, as the market has received 613 tonnes of vegetables until Monday afternoon, which is around the average level, the fruit vendors and consumers think otherwise.

Vegetables are going to be dearer until the festival season ends, they say.