DOHA: With the onset of the winter season local produce has begun to come on the central fruits and vegetables market so one can expect the prices to stabilise, say traders.
The prices had soared prior to Eid Al Adha due to frenzied buying that had led to increasing demand.
After the Eid day, however, the market did not witness much rush as a large number of people had left for overseas for vacationing. This led the prices to decrease due to depressed demand.
The importers were, thus, forced to rush much of the stocks to cold stores so they could retrieve them as and when required. Vegetable and fruit prices had declined so much after the first day of Eid that a box of eight kg of tomatoes was, for example, being sold for QR18.
According to some traders, the low price range that was witnessed last week was a temporary phenomenon caused mainly due to absence of buyers.
“The absence of bulk consumer buyers was mainly due to the fact that a large number of people had already bought large stocks of fruits and vegetables before Eid and, secondly, a lot of people travelled overseas for vacationing,” a trader told this newspaper yesterday.
He added that since the government offices were closed for Eid for 10 days and will be reopening today he expected that the turnout of buyers to increase.
“We are going to witness the same old rush within a few days beginning from today and this would mean that the demand would go up and so the prices,” said the trader. Others at the market said they expected the prices of fresh fruits and vegetables to stabilise as the winter season had begun and local produce had started coming form the farms in the north of the country.
“During the winter months there are more supplies of fresh vegetables, especially, as farms in Qatar begin offloading their produce in large quantities so it is natural for the prices to stabilize,” said the trader. According to him, potatoes, tomatoes, khusa and cucumber, among other vegetables, are grown on a large scale locally since they are popular vegetables so their supplies are much more during the winter months and that explains price stability.
The Peninsula
