Tomato prices are likely to ease in a couple of weeks after the arrival of new crop, Shriram Gadhave, president of All India Vegetable Growers Association, said.
The price of tomato had become as high as onion’s as supplies from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat were disturbed because of untimely rainfall. At present, retail tomato prices in different parts of the country are varying between R40 and R60 per kg.
Apart from Nashik (Maharashtra), rainfall in October and November had affected tomato crop in Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh) and Anand (Gujarat) as well. ?Farmers were forced to replace and replant the crop in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka because of the rains. Tomatoes have been planted on 3.5 lakh to 4 lakh hectares in the state,” Gadhave said.
Last week onwards, tomato arrivals have increased in Bangalore, which has started feeding the Northeast and Kolkata markets.
Officials at the Lasalgaon market committee in Nashik, one of the main regions producing the crop, said it had been impacted by 40% owing due to the untimely rains. The wholesale price of tomato is R25-R30 per kg at the farmer’s end and by the time it comes to the retailer, it touches R50-R60 per kg, Gadhave explained.
Officials at the Pimpalgaon market committee also said arrivals of tomato had reduced greatly. The daily arrival at Pimpalgaon has reduced from about 2.5 lakh crates in October to less than a lakh. The number of trucks going to Delhi also reduced by half, an official said.