The Department of Consumer Affairs on Wednesday directed the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) to immediately procure tomatoes from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, in a release, said that the procurement will be done for simultaneous distribution in major consumption centres where retail prices have recorded maximum increase in the last one month. “The stocks of tomato will be distributed through retail outlets at discounted prices to the consumers in Delhi-NCR region by Friday, this week,” the release said.

According to the data from the consumer affairs ministry, the all-India average retail price of tomato was at Rs 104.38 per kg. 

“The targeted centres for release have been identified on the basis of absolute increase in retail prices over the past one month in centres where prevailing prices are above the All-India average. Key consumption centres in states having higher concentration of the identified centres are further selected for the intervention,” the ministry said. 

While tomatoes are produced in almost all states across India (in varying quantities), maximum production is in southern and western regions of India which contribute to around 56- 58 per cent of all India production. The southern and western regions are the surplus states and they supply to other markets depending on the production seasons. The peak harvesting season occurs from December to February whereas July-August and October-November are generally the lean production months. July coinciding with monsoon season, adds to further challenges related to distribution and increased transit losses adding to price rise.

The current supply of tomatoes in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and some other states are mostly from Maharashtra especially Satara, Narayangaon, and Nashik which is expected to last till this month end. The arrivals in Delhi-NCR are mainly from Himachal Pradesh and some quantity comes from Kolar in Karnataka. The ministry stated that the new crop arrivals are expected soon from Nashik and additional supply is expected to come from Narayangaon and Aurangabad belt in August. Madhya Pradesh arrivals are also expected to start. Accordingly, the ministry said, the prices are expected to cool down in the near future. 

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