The rise in prices, which came suddenly, has made vegetables unaffordable to most Bhutanese families, especially in Thimphu.
Shortages, which normally lead to price rises, don’t seem to be the problem. At least not yet, as potatoes keep coming, for only Nu 100 or more per kilogram at this time.
A kilogram of jitsi ema (bird eye chilli) costs Nu 500.
Vendors say that the price rise is from the source. This cannot be denied entirely because, in the case of potatoes, most farmers took them to the auctions last month. The ones in the market today are coming from the farmers who hoarded them for a better price according to kuenselonline.com
Farmers are not to blame because it’s business—one would obviously sell a thing for a higher price when a shortage is likely. Farmers too had to face their fair share of trouble due to the pandemic.
Perhaps, after taking so much beating, it made Bhutanese farmers a little astute this time round because they knew there would be a shortage, as most of the Bhutanese potatoes had gone to India already. Hoarding, in that sense, was sensible, even laudable.
An absolute shortage would have left us in a very precarious situation.
But the real problem is that if there is no intervention from the organisations and agencies responsible, the price rise is going to shoot up all the more and these vegetables will soon be beyond the reach of most Bhutanese families.
