RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The price of sor­rel re­mains cheap­er than last year in the lead-up to Christ­mas, but ven­dors ex­pect it to rise to $20 per pound as a na­tion­al short­age con­tin­ues to de­vel­op.

At the San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Mar­ket, ven­dor Cur­tis George of Grand La­goon, Ma­yaro, said sor­rel is cur­rent­ly sell­ing at three pounds for $25, a no­tice­ably low­er rate than the $20 per pound that dom­i­nat­ed two Christ­mas sea­sons ago. How­ev­er, he said the low prices may not last.

George ex­plained that the sup­ply has been in­con­sis­tent, and this was dri­ving up prices.

“I don’t know why—maybe the seed wasn’t good or the weath­er—but we didn’t see sor­rel in large quan­ti­ties so far,” he said.

He brought on­ly a small quan­ti­ty of sor­rel to the mar­ket yes­ter­day, and it sold out in un­der an hour.

George said he plans to re­turn next week with 20 more bags but ex­pects the price to climb as Christ­mas de­mand in­ten­si­fies.

Mean­while, ven­dor Nan­cy Per­sad, who has been sell­ing at the mar­ket for 38 years, said mar­ket prices re­main low­er than last year be­cause sup­ply has not yet tight­ened.

She not­ed that for­eign gin­ger is re­tail­ing at $15 per pound while lo­cal gin­ger is sell­ing at $30 per pound, a sharp drop from the $50 to $60 per pound record­ed last year dur­ing a se­vere short­age.

“Prices fall when sup­ply is high, and they rise when sup­ply drops,” Per­sad said. “So I be­lieve sor­rel and gin­ger prices will go up as the sea­son pro­gress­es.”

Per­sad said that some items re­main rel­a­tive­ly sta­ble, in­clud­ing figs at $5 to $6 per pound, while per­sis­tent rain­fall has pushed up the cost of cer­tain gar­den crops.

Guayagua­yare ven­dor Ran­dolph Hamil­ton echoed the ex­pec­ta­tion that sor­rel will rise clos­er to Christ­mas.

He said sales vary by stall, and pro­duce such as co­conuts and toma­toes fluc­tu­ate ac­cord­ing to avail­abil­i­ty.

He added that ven­dors are try­ing to keep prices rea­son­able, giv­en the hol­i­day sea­son and ris­ing cost of liv­ing.

“Here in the up­stairs part of the mar­ket, the farm­ers come with their goods. I sell dried co­conuts $2 to $6, de­pend­ing on the size, be­cause I know peo­ple are strug­gling,” he said.

He al­so agreed that sor­rel sup­ply ap­pears to be tight­en­ing and the price is like­ly to rise to around $20 per pound by next week as Christ­mas de­mand peaks.

Re­tail prices at the Debe, Mara­bel­la and San Fer­nan­do mar­kets in south Trinidad, based on the Namde­v­co list­ing, showed toma­toes sell­ing be­tween $10 and $12 per pound, while cu­cum­bers ranged from $4 to $6 per pound. Cab­bage was priced be­tween $5 and $7 per pound, and pump­kin sold for $3 to $4 per pound.

Hot pep­pers av­er­aged $8 to $10 per pound, with sweet pep­pers slight­ly high­er at $10 to $12 per pound.

Limes cost $12 to $15 per dozen, and car­rots were gen­er­al­ly priced be­tween $8 and $10 per pound.

At whole­sale dis­tri­b­u­tion points in South Trinidad, toma­toes were avail­able for $6 to $8 per pound, cab­bage for $3 to $4 per pound, and pump­kin at low­er rates of $1.50 to $2.50 per pound.

Gin­ger whole­saled be­tween $8 and $10 per pound, cu­cum­bers for $2 to $3 per pound, and hot pep­pers for $5 to $7 per pound. Bun­dles of green sea­son­ing were priced at $2 to $3 each.