Ganesha effect: Bananas at Rs180 a kg

Bengaluru: People may be hoping to please Lord Ganesha with offerings of fruit and flowers this festival, but shopkeepers are not making their lives easy by jacking up the prices of the humble bananas, apples and other fruits, besides jasmine and various kinds of flowers in the city’s markets.

‘Yelakki’ costs Rs 180 a kg
A visit to the markets on the eve of the Ganesha festival showed that the vendors were out to cash in on the demand for fruits.  

One kg of the humble “yelakki” banana, that cost around Rs 100 not too long ago, is now selling for Rs 150 to Rs 180 and one kg of apple, which cost  Rs 70 to Rs 80 until recently, is now going for Rs 120 to Rs 150 depending on its size and quality. 

The prices of pomegranate, sweet lime, sapotas, custard apple, and Ganesha’s favourite, wood apple are also soaring ahead of the festival.

Muniyamma, a fruit vendor in Wilson Garden, reveals that the prices of fruits have seen a steady rise in the days leading up to the festival. “Some of the fruits like bananas and apples have almost doubled in price and we too are forced to pay more to the wholesaler in K R Market,” she adds.

“The cost of “yelakki” banana is touching the roof owing to the drought and dry borewells across the state,” reveals a banana vendor, Sathya,  in K R Market.

Flowers cost more 
Housewives , who headed to the markets to buy flowers for decorating their Ganesha idols,  were in for a shock on Thursday as their prices had doubled.

Said Ms Gayathri, a homemaker from V V Puram, “One metre of jasmine (mallige), which used to cost Rs 20 earlier, now costs Rs 50. When I tried to substitute jasmine with crossandra (kanakambara) and chrysanthemum, I found they were not cheap either as they too cost Rs 50 a metre.” With prices pinching their pockets ,  people out for Ganesha shopping had a choice: Either  haggle  with vendors or  skip some of the items on their shopping lists.