A lemon costing Rs 850 a kilo. A tomato at Rs 680. And one cucumber for nearly Rs 300.Those are the prices an Indian living in Norway spotted at a local store. He shared them online, but instead of simply comparing the cost of groceries in the two countries, he asked a question that got people talking: Are we actually paying Indian farmers enough?The user, Vinod, shared a video on X (formerly Twitter), showing the prices of vegetables at a Norwegian store.“Even after living in Norway for years, it still surprises me every time I visit the butikk,” he wrote.According to the prices he shared, organic lemons were selling for around Rs 850 per kg, tomatoes for about Rs 680 per kg and a single cucumber for roughly Rs 300.He then put those numbers next to prices in India. In metros, he said, lemons can cost around Rs 90-Rs 110 per kg, tomatoes Rs 60-Rs 80 per kg and cucumbers around Rs 20-Rs 30 each, depending on the quality.At first glance, it looks like a simple Norway-versus-India grocery comparison. But Vinod wasn’t really making that point.“Still, we complain as always,” he wrote. “It’s not about Norway’s cost structure, salaries, imports and so on… it just makes me wonder if we’re paying our farmers a fair price, enough for their hard work in India.”And then came the question that set off the debate: “What do you think, fam? Are we failing our farmers in India?”
‘Farmers don’t get a fair price’
The post soon attracted plenty of reactions, with people looking at the comparison from very different sides.One user argued that farmers often don’t get a fair share of what consumers pay, pointing to middlemen and the way agricultural prices are controlled.But others weren’t convinced that vegetable prices alone could be used to make that comparison.“Check per capita income of the country u mentioned and India,” one user wrote, also asking people to look at how income is distributed before comparing prices between the two countries.Another user agreed with Vinod’s broader concern. They said that people often celebrate India’s low food prices without asking why everyday essentials can be so cheap in the first place.The comment also drew a comparison with India’s quick-commerce services, arguing that low prices and fast deliveries can sometimes depend on the workers at the bottom of the chain.So, while the price of a lemon may have started the conversation, that’s not really what people are arguing about anymore.The bigger question is where the money goes between the farm and the consumer, and whether the person growing the food is getting a fair enough share of it.
