Don’t blame us, say Mumbai traders

While consumers are crying hoarse over rising prices and farmers are getting a pittance for their produce, the only ones laughing their way to the bank are the wholesalers and retail traders. However, many of them do not think so.  

“This happens whenever there’s a price rise, people straightaway blame us,” says Narrotamdas Mauji, a Worli retail grocery shop owner who also sells vegetables. “We don’t grow this stuff in our backyards. We’ll be able to sell based on the prices we get it for.”

He says he commiserates with the consumers. “First, these things were seasonal. Prices would fluctuate toward the higher side only for one or two items and despite the rumblings of protest this would somehow work out. Now it has become a norm for price rise in practically everything — vegetables, pulses cooking oil, atta and even masalas. Obviously, the buyers are irritated.” 

At the wholesale market in Dadar the din has reduced. “Of course, business goes on,” says Pramod Nalawade, who runs a wholesale outlet dealing in onions, potatoes and garlic, “but the buzz is missing. Regulars can make out how thanda the market is.”

He feels that far too much is being made out of the price rise by the middle-class which only wants to pressure horticulturists and traders. “I have literally grown up here. There is the vada seller whose vadas are an institution. Two vadas cost Rs5 when I was in school, but since then it has risen to Rs18 and yet the crowds have not reduced. I see them only growing, which means that people have the power to pay these days. Standards of living are rising and people shouldn’t whine about the fact that traders and farmers are making a little more money like they are,” he says.