Arrivals of onions and tomatoes have substantially improved over the last three days in Delhi markets and this may help reduce wholesale and retail prices here, said a high-level meeting convened to review prices and availability of staple kitchen vegetables on Friday.

According to the data presented at an interministerial committee meeting convened by the Department of Consumer Affairs, Azadpur Mandi, Asia’s largest vegetable mandi, received nearly three times more onions and tomatoes in the last three days as compared with the daily average in the preceding days.

There have been some supply disruption because of Diwali and also rains in some areas where these crops are grown hit harvesting leading to the spurt in prices.

An official of the Agricultural Ministry present at the meeting said the harvesting of kharif onions was underway in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Farmers are currently harvesting the tomato crop in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. While the arrivals of tomatoes have started improving bringing down the prices.

More tomatoes are expected to hit the mandis by mid-November with tomato harvesting taking place in Rajasthan, Haryana, MP and Uttar Pradesh, an official statement said.

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