REUTERS, MUMBAI - Fruit and vegetable prices, up a fifth in the last one month and adding to rising inflation, are likely to climb further in the next three months on restricted supply, traders said.

"The supply situation is very tight. Arrivals of many vegetables have come down and will remain on lower side for next few months," said Vilas Bhujbal, a vegetable trader in Pune, Maharashtra.

"Prices of vegetables are unlikely to come down. They may edge up further in the next two months," said Ashok Gavade, a big trader from the Vashi market near Mumbai.

However, in this largely vegetarian country, a bumper crop has put paid to any significant price rise of onion and potato, favourites on the Indian menu, in the last two months. "Big retail chains are procuring good quality produce at higher prices and it is keeping prices firm," said Kapil Chawla, a fruit and vegetable trader based in Azadpur, Delhi.

Last week, the wholesale price index accelerated to 7 percent in the 12 months to March 22, the highest in more than three years The government, to rein in soaring inflation in food commodities, slashed import duty on edible oils and banned exports in pulses and non-basmati rice.

Vegetables are priced lower in India and its perishable nature makes it difficult to import.

NOT-SO-SWEET FRUITS

The mango output is likely to go down due to extended monsoon, cold weather and unseasonal rainfall in March, which affected the main producing states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Scarcity of the primary summer fruit of India is likely to keep the prices of other fruits firm, especially bananas. India is the biggest producer and consumer of mangoes and bananas in the world.

"Arrivals of grape, oranges have gone down and it has boosted demand for banana. Its prices will remain firm till July, when arrivals will start rising," said Dyandeo Mahajan, president of Mhabanana, a Maharashtra state body to help cultivation and export bananas.

In summer arrivals of apples, oranges and grapes go down while watermelon and mango replaces them. "The shortfall in mango output will support prices of other fruits," Mahajan said.

Already mango arrivals have started, but prices are 20 percent to 30 percent higher than last year. Prices of banana, an affordable fruit for most Indians, in wholesale market at Jalgoan, Maharashtra, has gone up to 600 rupees per 100 kg, from 480 rupees a month earlier.

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