HANAMKONDA: Price of red chilli appears to be competing with gold, shooting up to an all-time high of ₹ 52,000 per quintal in the country on Wednesday at Enumamula, Asia’s biggest agriculture market in Hanamkonda district of Telangana.
For past one month, prices of red chilli have been shooting up, as there has been a great demand for chillies in the international market.
Baluguri Rajeshwara Rao, a farmer from S. Nagar village in Mulugu mandal of Mulugu district, brought seven bags of red chilli to the Enumamula market on Wednesday. Merchants competed with each other to purchase his chilli in the auction, which finally went for ₹ 52,000 per quintal.
Last year, farmers had got a price between ₹ 8,000 to ₹ 9,000 per quintal, though their yield per acre had been 20–30 quintals. This year, most chilli farmers could harvest only 4–5 quintals per acre, due to various reasons like attack by a new variant of invasive pest and sudden unexpected rains. But prices of their product have shot up.
Farmers are rather disappointed that their yields have been low.
