Scenes from Azadpur Mandi amid farmer protests: Present tense, future challenging

New Delhi: Vendors wait for customers at the Azadpur Mandi where the business is badly hit due to demonetisation, in New Delhi on Monday. PTI Photo by Shahbaz Khan (PTI11_28_2016_000316B)

Delhi APMC’s Azadpur Mandi (wholesale market) is the largest fruit and vegetable market in Asia. Farmers and traders from across the country bring their produce to this market for selling. This Mandi is also one of the largest import and export hub for fruits and vegetables in India. A visit to this Mandi is always fascinating. From the lorry drivers travelling from all corners of India one can gather first-hand account of the socio-economic state of affairs in the country.

Azadpur Mandi is an ideal reflection of socialist and secular society. One finds rich traders and commission agents and poor labourers in unison, struggling to pass through filthy and narrow by-lanes of the Mandi. Hindu, Muslims and Sikhs work, eat and live together here most amicably. The social and legal issues like child labor, drugs, labor exploitation, human rights violation, labour dignity etc are mostly meaningless here. No one seems to be bothered about these issues here. Here one can get cheapest and tastiest street food in the city, which is enjoyed by the rich traders and poor workers equally.

Over the last weekend, I met some large fruit and vegetable commission agents in the Mandi to assess the current business conditions and their assessment of the demand in next few months. The following is the summary of discussion.

1) For many of them, business is down 25-50% as compared to pre-Covid average. Moreover, full recovery is not expected even in next 3yrs.

2) The demand for fruits and vegetable from hotel industry is down significantly. Curbs on travel and gatherings have impacted the demand. Their feedback from hotel industry indicates that growth in corporate travel and attendance at social functions may not return in next couple of years at least.

It is pertinent to note that the ratio of per person fruits and vegetables used in food preparation in hotels is usually 2x of the quantity used at home.

1) Marriage attendance that used to be in excess of 1000 is structurally down to 200-300. In the view of most traders, the fat big Indian weddings may not return for few more years, if at all. People are now becoming very comfortable with small gatherings. Virtual participation of outstation guests through live telecast is becoming more of a norm.

2) As per few estimates, in pre Covid period over 2 lakh outstation students were living in Delhi to take coaching for various examinations. These students were mostly living in paying guest accommodations and guest houses. The number is now estimated to be down to less than 25,000, as online coaching has become popular. The demand for fruits and vegetables for catering to these students (canteens and dhabas) may be structurally down.

3) Many corporate and other institutional canteens are still closed or working at lower capacity, as workers and students are preferring to carry home cooked food due to hygiene reasons.

4) A huge part lakh  the credit extended by Mandi traders to the retail merchants and street hawkers in pre Covid period has turned bad with no hope of recovery.

5) Many traders expect the low attendance in wedding, work from home (WFH) and Learn from home (LFH) etc to reflect on demand for textile, footwear, food, jewellery, cosmetic, travel, and fuel demand etc.

Overall, the current mood is despondent and the future outlook is not so optimistic either.