The government said on Friday that a stronger supply of fresh harvests from Maharashtra should lead to a decrease in tomato retail prices.
Retail prices have increased to between Rs 200 and 250 per kilogram in a number of regions of the nation as a result of supply chain disruption brought on by monsoon rains and other problems.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the state minister for consumer affairs, food, and public distribution, stated in a written response to a question from the Rajya Sabha that “prices of tomato are expected to come down with the increase in arrival of new crop from Nashik, Naryangaon, and Aurangabad belt in Maharashtra as well as from Madhya Pradesh.”
According to him, the “current rise in tomato prices may encourage farmers to grow a larger crop of tomatoes, which is expected to stabilize the prices in the coming months.”
Choubey explained the recent rise in prices by citing a number of factors, including “crop seasonality, white fly disease in Kolar (Karnataka), instantaneous arrival of monsoon rains in the northern part of the country, which adversely affected tomato crops in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, and logistics disruptions in isolated areas due to heavy rains.”
The minister said that during the week of July 10–16, the average daily retail price of tomatoes had surpassed Rs 150 per kg in Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
As of July 18, Punjab’s average retail price was Rs 127.70 per kg, while Delhi’s dropped to Rs 130 per kg.
The government has begun purchasing tomatoes under the Price Stabilization Fund in an effort to control their costs and make them cheap, and is now selling them to consumers at a price that is heavily subsidized.
Tomatoes are continuously purchased from “mandis” in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra by the National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED), who then distribute them at competitive prices to major consumption hubs such as Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc.
Tomatoes were first sold for Rs 90 per kg at retail, but that price was then lowered to Rs 80 per kg starting on July 16 and then to Rs 70 per kg starting on July 20.
391 tonnes of tomatoes have been purchased as of July 18 for ongoing retail disposal in key consumption centers for the benefit of consumers.
