Roberts ganj, Sonbhadra in East UP and Delhi Mumbai’s retail sabzi mandis have one thing in common. Tomatoes are selling at Rs 120 per kilogram. Mother Dairy was offering the vegetable at Rs 96 per kilo and online groceries at Rs 99.

 

Four months ago, this March, angry farmers from Andhra Pradesh to east UP had flung ripe tomatoes on the streets in vocal protest after a government failed to protect tBeir econoMic interest, did not provide a fair sustained market price for the vegetable. Prices had crashed and ripe tomatoes stained the streets. In the market they were available at Rs 1, sometimes even 50 paise per kilogram.

 

Where then is the state when farmers suffer from these huge market fluctuations for their produce? The agrarian distress has hit Indian farmers hard not allowing them to enhance their economy with cooperatives that run storage and distribution units. As a result, the farmer will not gain through today’s staggeringly high price.

 

Today, newspapers report that on Tuesday, tomatoes prices  sold at ₹96-110 a kg in the Delhi NCR region. No questions have been asked whether this upsurge in pricing will go to the farmer. In Mumbai, tomatoes were retailing at around ₹110/kg, in Kolkata at ₹99/kg, in Hyderabad at ₹108/kg, and in Bengaluru at ₹80-92/kg.

 

High prices are hurting retail consumers badly, and even large buyers such as restaurants seem to be facing the brunt. A McDonald’s restaurant in Noida put up a sign telling its customers that owing to temporary unavailability of tomatoes, “we are unable to add tomatoes in various products.” The situation, it said, is expected to become stable soon.
 

With fresh tomatoes turning expensive, some consumers are switching over to processed puree. A 200-ml pack of tomato puree across brands costs ₹20-25, and a 1-kg pack about ₹85 in Delhi.

Restaurant chains, which typically source their supplies through annual contracts on pre-determined prices, are seen largely insulated from the sharp hike in prices, which have more than quadrupled over the past three months in major markets.

The early arrival of the monsoon across the country impacted the standing crop in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, among other States, leading to a decline in arrivals.
 

But how come just four months ago our farmers were not protected from the price slump? Then, Upset with sudden fall in tomato prices, farmers threw their produces on a street near the APMC market and farmers in eastern UP were no less enraged. The issue of fair pricing for farmers and the minimum support price for agricultural produce is a political hot potato- promised at election time and unfulfilled thereafter.

 

In March this year,  angry farmers had staged a protest blaming the failure of APMC committee, merchants and officers of Agriculture Marketing Department for the dip in prices.They hadalleged that till Tuesday, tomato was sold at Rs. 8 to 10 per kilo.

When the market opened on Wednesday morning, the price was as low as Rs. 1 per kilo and within a couple of hours it came down to 50 paisa a kilo, leaving the farmers angry.

 

Delhi NCR, tomato prices were sold at ₹96-110 a kg on Tuesday. Safal, the subsidiary of Mother Dairy, was selling tomatoes at ₹96/kg, and online grocers BigBasket and Grofers at ₹99/kg and ₹98/kg, respectively. Desi tomatoes online were even more expensive at ₹105/kg.

In Mumbai, tomatoes were retailing at around ₹110/kg, in Kolkata at ₹99/kg, in Hyderabad at ₹108/kg, and in Bengaluru at ₹80-92/kg.

Prices are expected to stay firm in the near term, traders and officials said, hinting that consumers will likely get a respite only towards end-August when fresh supplies from key growing regions of Nashik and Kolar are expected.

While high prices are hurting retail consumers badly, even large buyers such as restaurants seem to be facing the brunt. A McDonald’s restaurant in Noida put up a sign telling its customers that owing to temporary unavailability of tomatoes, “we are unable to add tomatoes in various products.” The situation, it said, is expected to become stable soon.

The high prices have turned the vegetable into a precious commodity: there are reports of traders seeking armed protection for the stored tomatoes from markets in Madhya Pradesh.

With fresh tomatoes turning expensive, some consumers are switching over to processed puree. A 200-ml pack of tomato puree across brands costs ₹20-25, and a 1-kg pack about ₹85 in Delhi.

Restaurant chains, which typically source their supplies through annual contracts on pre-determined prices, are seen largely insulated from the sharp hike in prices, which have more than quadrupled over the past three months in major markets.

The early arrival of the monsoon across the country impacted the standing crop in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, among other States, leading to a decline in arrivals.