The recent increase in prices of tomatoes is attributed to a combination of factors such as crop seasonality, white fly disease in Kolar of Karnataka, and rains in the northern part of the country, besides logistics disruptions.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said the average daily retail prices of tomatoes had crossed ₹150 a kg in Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands during the week ended July 16. As on July 18, the average retail price in Delhi declined to ₹130 a kg and to ₹127.70 a kg in Punjab.

He said the instant arrival of monsoon rains in northern part of the country affected tomato crop in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, and logistics disruptions in isolated areas due to heavy rains.

He said the Government intervened by procuring tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for simultaneous disposal in major cities at subsidised prices. Till July 18, a total of 391 tonnes of tomato were procured for continuous retail disposal in major consumption centres for the benefit of the consumers.

Set to ease soon

To a separate query, the Minister said the prices of tomato is expected to come down with the increase in the arrival of new crop from Nashik, Naryangoan, and Aurangabad belt in Maharashtra and also from Madhya Pradesh.

In order to check the current increase in prices of tomato and make it available to the consumers at affordable prices, the Government has started the procurement of tomatoes under price stabilisation fund and is making it available at a highly subsidised rate to consumers.

The National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) are continuously procuring tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra and making it available at affordable prices in major consuming centres in Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc., after subsidising the price to the consumers.

The tomatoes have been disposed initially at retail price of ₹90 a kg, which has been reduced to ₹80from July 16, and further reduced to ₹70from July 20.

On the projected impact of the anticipated drop in tomato prices on farmers’ income and livelihoods, the Minister said the current increase in tomato prices may incentivise farmers to grow more tomato crop which is expected to stabilise the prices in coming months.

Market intervention

The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare implements Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) to protect the growers of perishable agri-horticultural commodities from making distress sale in the event of a bumper crop during the peak arrival period when the prices tend to fall below economic levels and cost of production.

Under the scheme, the loss on account of the fall in price is borne between the Union government and State governments on 50:50 basis. Since the inception of MIS till date, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has not received any proposal from State governments for market intervention to address distress sale of tomato, he said.

Replying to a question, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, said there are 8,639 cold storages in the country with the capacity of 393.61 lakh tonnes on date. During 2022-23 and till July 1 of 2023-24, the country augmented 188 cold storages with a capacity of 7.82 lakh tonnes.

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