Tomato rates soar as Centre looks to south for new stock
Last month, a delayed monsoon and blistering temperatures, followed by heavy rains have disrupted supplies
Hot weather and heavy rain have pushed up retail prices of tomato to ₹70-90 a kg in several cities, including Delhi, Kanpur and Kolkata, the sharpest rise so far this year, squeezing households.
However, fresh harvests from southern states are set to hit markets soon, which should ease prices within days, the Union consumer affairs ministry has said, adding that summer sowing of key vegetables is expanding robustly on the back of good rains.
Last month, a delayed monsoon and blistering temperatures, followed by heavy rains have disrupted supplies. Perishability, worsened by heat waves, is another reason for shortages, traders said. Tomatoes tend to get expensive during June and July, a lean season.
Tomatoes were selling for ₹75 a kg at Mother Dairy-run Safal grocery stores in Delhi and the National Capital Region, according to a spokesperson. An online quick commerce platform was selling the vegetable for ₹86 a kg on Saturday.
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“The recent spell of heatwave affected supplies. Farmers were not being able to make profit and the produce was getting spoilt very fast due to the heat. Those supplies have ended and currently, tomatoes are coming only from Himachal Pradesh,” said Ashok Kaushik, president of Tomato Traders’ Association at Azadpur wholesale market in Delhi.
Tomato rates showed a moderation in June from a year ago, but the vegetable was way costlier when compared to the previous month, according to official data. Average consumer prices for tomato on July 2, for instance, declined 15%, from ₹64.5 a kg a year ago to ₹54.42. However, compared to a month ago, the vegetable rose a sharp 71%, from ₹31.74 a kg to ₹54.42 a kg. Rates began soaring even higher since Thursday.
Prices should fall in a week due to good crop conditions in major tomato producing areas such as Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and Kolar in Karnataka, the consumer affairs ministry said. “In Kolar, picking of tomatoes have started and will hit the market within a few days from now,” a statement said.
However, Anil Malhotra, a member of the Azadpur agricultural produce marketing committee, said that the monsoon tends to affect the prices of vegetables. “We might see a spike in prices of several vegetables in the next couple of weeks.”
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Retail onion and potato prices too have also soared nearly 81% and 57% from a year ago, keeping food inflation high and central bank policymakers on the edge. Prices of the three basic grocery items, consumed year-round, have been elevated due to adverse weather and lower output last year.
“Food inflation is the main factor behind the grudgingly slow pace of disinflation. Recurring and overlapping supply-side shocks continue to play an outsized role in food inflation,” RBI governor Shaktikanta Das had said in the minutes of the monetary policy committee meeting held in June.
Rabi or winter-sown onion output declined by 20% to 19 million tonne this year. Rabi onion usually accounts for nearly 72% of India’s annual supply. Last year in July, prices of the commonly consumed vegetable rocketed to a record ₹178 a kg in Delhi, an eightfold jump.