Avarekai yet to flood Bengaluru markets

The much-awaited arrival of avarekai, the flavour of the season, is yet to flood Bengaluru’s markets. Deficit rains during the northeast monsoon and continuous rains in August earlier this year around Bengaluru seem to have hit the supply of avarekai this season.

But the present cold wave and dew are good for the crop, and is expected to help increase the sogadu (distinct aroma) of avarekai. The influx of avarekai usually starts by November, and the season usually extends beyond Sankranti in January.

“By now, the price of a kilo of avarekai should have stabilised at around ₹40 to ₹50. But it is still as high as ₹80,” said Neelamma, a vendor in Malleswaram market selling avarekai for decades.

Hitukida avarebele (skinned beans) is being sold at as high as ₹400 a kilo.

Chennathimmaiah, a farmer who used to grow avarekai in Magadi, said that due to losses in successive years, he had not planted avarekai this year at all. He is not alone. “During August, which is when sowing is done for avarekai, we saw incessant rains this year and most farmers missed the bus then. Sowing itself is low in Kolar and Chickballapur,” said Srinivas, a farmers’ leader from Chickballapur district.

But because of the heavy August rains, those who have opted to grow avarekai have sown it late and the crop was delayed, said a procurement officer for a grocery chain in Bengaluru. “We expect the supply to go up in another two weeks,” he said.

Shivamadu, Director, Horticultural Producers’ Cooperative Marketing and Processing Society (HOPCOMS), said that avarekai was coming into the city’s markets at present from the Hunsur belt and crop from Kolar, Chickballapur, and Bengaluru Rural districts have also begun trickling in and would soon come in good quantities.