Behaviour of Market Arrivals and Prices of Selected Vegetable Crops: A Study of Four Metropolitan Markets

This study has been undertaken with the twin objectives of examining the variability pattern of market arrivals and prices of selected vegetable crops (cabbage, cauliflower, tomato and peas) in metropolitan markets of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata and analysing the relationship between market arrivals and prices. The study is based on market arrivals and wholesale prices of different vegetable crops collected from the Azadpur market of Delhi and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), New Delhi, for the period 1990-2001. The study has shown that the extent of variability in the arrivals of cabbage was lower in Bangalore and higher in Mumbai. The prices were relatively stable in Mumbai but were more volatile in Bangalore. There was broadly a similar pattern in the price variability across different months in Kolkata and Delhi markets. For cauliflower, the variability in the market arrivals was more pronounced in Kolkata than the remaining three markets. The price variability was, however, more marked in Delhi. The extent of variability in the market arrivals of tomato across different months was very high in all the four markets. Likewise, while the maximum variability in the prices of peas was noted for Delhi, these were relatively less marked in Bangalore. The results of the study have confirmed the negative relationship between market arrivals and prices in terms of correlation coefficients over the years and across months in all the four metropolitan markets, though there were several instances of positive relationship.