Tomato Price: In many states of the country, the price of tomato has crossed 200 rupees. Meanwhile, a statement has been issued by the government and it has been said that with more supply of new crop from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, retail prices of tomatoes are expected to decline. Retail prices of tomatoes have touched Rs 200-250 per kg in many parts of the country due to supply chain disruptions due to monsoon rains and other reasons.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ashwini Kumar Choubey gave information about the price of tomato and said that the arrival of new crop from Nashik, Narayangaon and Aurangabad regions in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh is likely to bring down tomato prices. He said that the current increase in tomato prices may encourage farmers to grow more tomato crop, which is expected to stabilize the prices in the coming months.
Why the price of tomato increased
Minister of State Ashwani Kumar Choubey attributed the recent increase in prices to the seasonal condition of the crop. He also said that the price of tomato is being seen to increase due to a combination of factors like white fly disease in Kolar (Karnataka), immediate arrival of monsoon rains in northern part of the country, which adversely affected tomato crops in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and ‘logistics’ disruption in different areas due to heavy rains. The minister informed that the average daily retail price of tomato had crossed Rs 150 per kg in Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands during the week of July 10-16.
Tomatoes are being made available by the government at a cheaper price
On July 18, the average retail price in the country’s capital Delhi came down to Rs 130 per kg and in Punjab to Rs 127.70 per kg. In order to curb the prices of tomatoes and make them affordable, the government has started procuring them under the Price Stabilization Fund and making them available to the consumers at highly subsidized rates. National Cooperative Consumer Federation (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) are procuring tomatoes from ‘mandis’ of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and making them available at major consumer centers of Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan etc. at affordable prices.
The price is not decreasing! Thieves hijacked a Bolero filled with tomatoes worth 2 lakhs, bouncers were deployed here
Tomato laden truck hijack
Here, a couple from Tamil Nadu has been arrested in Bengaluru for hijacking a truck carrying 2.5 tonnes of tomatoes. Information in this regard has been given by the police. Police said the couple, residents of Vellore, are members of a gang involved in highway robberies and stopped a farmer Mallesh of Hiriyur at Chikkajala in Chitradurga district on July 8 and tried to extort money from him by claiming that his truck had hit their car. According to the police, when Mallesh refused to give the money, the couple assaulted him, threw him out of the truck and fled with the truck carrying 2.5 tonnes of tomatoes worth over Rs 2.5 lakh.
Farmer’s 400 kg tomatoes stolen
In Maharashtra’s Pune, a farmer has approached the police alleging that 400 kg of tomatoes were stolen. In the recent week, the prices of tomatoes have increased wildly in the whole country, after which this type of news is usually being heard. The farmer told the police that he had suffered a loss of about Rs 20,000 due to this theft. Complainant Arun Dhome told the police that after plucking tomatoes from the field, he had brought them to his home in Shirur tehsil with the help of laborers. He was planning to sell these tomatoes in the market. When he woke up in the morning, he found that 20 boxes of tomatoes were missing, weighing 400 kg.
