🥕 Vegetable prices spiked again this week, anyone else noticing the jump at local markets?

Went to my usual vegetable vendor near Mehdipatnam this week for the regular grocery run, and the prices had jumped noticeably compared to just two weeks ago, tomatoes specifically almost doubled, and a few leafy greens I usually buy were priced high enough that I actually skipped them this time rather than pay what felt like an unreasonable amount for a small bundle. The vendor, someone I have bought from regularly for a couple of years now, mentioned that supply from the usual wholesale markets has been tighter than normal recently, something he attributed loosely to weather affecting harvests in the districts that typically supply this city, though he was not entirely specific about which exact region or crop was most affected this particular time around. What made it feel worse than a normal seasonal fluctuation is how sudden it seemed, prices that had been fairly stable for a couple of months jumping within what felt like just one or two weeks rather than gradually building up the way price increases sometimes do when demand slowly outpaces supply over a longer stretch of time. Checked with a friend who shops at a different market entirely on the other side of the city, and she confirmed similar jumps there too, which at least rules out it being specific to one particular vendor or market taking advantage of the situation locally, and suggests it is a broader supply issue affecting the whole city rather than something localized to my specific area. For a household on a fairly fixed monthly grocery budget, a jump like this genuinely changes what actually goes into the weekly shopping bag, cutting back on a few items rather than the usual mix, which is a small inconvenience in the bigger picture but still noticeable enough to actually plan around each week until prices settle back down again to something closer to normal. Is anyone else seeing similarly sharp jumps at their local market this week, and does anyone have a sense of how long this kind of spike usually takes to settle back down based on past experience here?

Based on a similar spike about a year ago in my own area, it took roughly three to four weeks before prices actually settled back down to something closer to normal, though they never quite returned all the way to the exact original price even after settling. Worth keeping that in mind if this current spike follows a similar pattern rather than expecting it to fully reverse within just a week or two.

Cutting back on the weekly bag rather than paying the higher price outright feels like the only real option most households actually have available right now. What I have started doing specifically is buying slightly larger quantities of whatever has not gone up much yet, potatoes and onions in my case, just to balance out the overall grocery bill for that particular week without cutting nutrition too much.

Skipped the leafy greens too this week for the exact same reason, the price for what used to be a routine small bundle felt genuinely unreasonable compared to what I remembered paying just recently. Ended up substituting with a vegetable that had not gone up as sharply instead, which worked fine for that one meal but is not really a long term solution if prices stay this high for more than a few weeks.

My own vendor gave a slightly different explanation, blamed transport delays from the usual supplying districts rather than the harvest itself, trucks apparently taking longer routes because of road work somewhere along the way. Either explanation is plausible honestly, and probably both are contributing at once, but it does make me wonder how much of this price jump is actually temporary versus something that quietly becomes the new normal price.

Tomatoes doubling exactly matches what I saw at my own vendor near Tolichowki this week too, went from a reasonable price to something I actually hesitated over before buying just a small amount instead of the usual quantity. What surprised me more was onions staying roughly stable while tomatoes specifically spiked, which made the whole thing feel less like a general price rise and more tied to one particular crop.