Warehouse owners are under the radar for hoarding lemons amid skyrocketing prices in the state

Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India]: The Ahmedabad police is investigating an intelligence input that some cold storage owners in Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Ahmedabad, and Gandhinagar are hoarding lemons to artificially drive up the prices of the citrus fruit in Gujarat.

In Gujarat, the retail prices of lemons have shot up to over Rs 280 per kg. The consumers in Gujarat, especially the housewives are fuming from the last many days with the skyrocketing prices of the lemons. In most households, the lemons have done a disappearing act due to the steep increase in the prices.

According to the Ahmedabad police, a trader in Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Himmatnagar, Sabarkantha hoarded around 300 tonnes of lemons in a warehouse. The lemons were hoarded about six months ago when the prices of lemons were hovering around Rs 20 per kg.

Police said that they have started a thorough investigation into the lemon hoarding issue and against the cold storage units or warehouse owners in Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Himmatnagar, etc.

It must be noted that Gujarat accounts for the second-highest 18% production of lemons in India after Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for 20% of lemon production in the country. In Gujarat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar are the two major lemon-producing cities.

The traders in APMC have been selling the lemons at inflated prices in Delhi and Punjab.