t of the winter harvesting season is seeing a drop in vegetable prices which were surging in the past few months owing to a decline in production and the crackdown on illegal expatriates working on farms across the Kingdom.The soaring prices of vegetables whether imported or locally harvested have been a cause for concern for residents and citizens alike.
The ridiculously overpriced vegetables can now be had for less than half the amount. Tomatoes which were being sold for SR17 per kilo in some parts of the Kingdom are now at SR6 per kilo with the arrival of the crop harvest from the Al-Kharj and Wadi Al-Dawasair areas.
Tomatoes are the most sought after vegetable in the Kingdom but the war in Syria, which is the main supplier of tomatoes, has restricted imports causing an increase in prices. However, this has been countered by tomatoes being imported from Jordan and local produce which is just entering the market.
Mustafa Mahmoud, an Egyptian business executive told Arab News that “Tomato supplies from Jordan are a blessing because they have put a ceiling on the surging prices.”
The arrival of locally harvested vegetable crops in the market namely tomatoes, potatoes and okra in the spring season has also attributed to the fall in prices.
Besides imports from abroad, tomatoes are grown locally in Taif in the Western region to Sakaka in the north over an estimated 15,000 hectares of agricultural land.
Tomatoes harvested in Al-Kharj and Riyadh are considered of premium quality and dominate not only the Riyadh market but also Dammam and Jeddah with over 50 percent of market shares.
Potatoes, mainly imported from Lebanon, were also touching new highs at SR8 per kilogram because of the political instability in Lebanon in recent months and the intensified raids on illegal workers in the Hail region which is the main source of the local produce. However, as potatoes from Hail have started to enter the market, prices of the ubiquitous vegetable are steadily falling.
Both locally grown and imported okra was being sold at SR14 but the price has been slashed down to SR6-8 per kilo helped by the abundant supplies from Taif and the Al-Baha regions. The produce from Madinah has not arrived in the Jeddah market yet which could drag the prices down further.
However, onion prices for both the local produce and the imported variety from India and Egypt remained stable even though the recent rains had wreaked havoc in the Jazan region, the main onion producing area in the Kingdom.
