Andhra Pradesh: Buyers feel pinch as tomato hits Rs 100 mark in Chittoor

TIRUPATI: Tomatoes, and not onions, are now priced over Rs 100 a kilogram are bringing tears to the home-makers across Chittoor district who have never seen the red vegetable being sold at such exorbitant rates in the past.
The Madanapalle-Palamaner stretch in Chittoor district, considered the tomato hub, where farmers quite often used to dump their tomato produce on the roads due to frequent price-drops, are now witnessing a phenomenon which they have never seen in the past, with the prices of tomato/kg sky-rocketting all of a sudden during the last few months.
While the price of tomato per kg in the Madanapalle region rose to Rs.70-80 a kilogram in the wholesale market, the red vegetable is being sold at Rs.100 and more at the vegetable markets and retail stores at Chittoor, Tirupati and Annamayya districts.
“A crate (30 kilo) of first quality tomatoes cost anywhere between Rs. 2,100-2,370 today. So, we sold it for Rs. 69-88, depending upon its grade and quality. Damage to the crop due to summer rains for the past one week resulted in the decrease of yields this time. Lack of supply led to a spike in the price of tomato,” says a wholesale trader.
Traders also predicted that prices of tomatoes are likely to remain on a higher side till the end of May or until fresh stocks arrive. They say that the price of tomato per kilo is expected to go up by another Rs. 15-20 and may cross Rs. 125 in the retail market by the end of the month, as the arrivals at the wholesale mandis had already shown signs of plummeting.
According to the information, the tomato market in Madanapalle town, the largest wholesaler for this produce in Asia, received nearly 155 tonnes of tomato on Friday and the average arrivals per day did not cross 200 tonnes in the past fortnight. In general, the supply of tomato to this market would be 5-7 times higher than the current arrivals.
“In the wholesale market, the first-grade tomato was sold at Rs. 88 a kilo on Friday, while the second variety was priced at Rs. 43-69 a kg. On an average more than 700 tonnes are expected to arrive at the Madanapalle market daily in the current season. However, farmers are bringing in less tomatoes to the market this season as yields have declined in many regions”, a marketing official said.
The Madanapalle wholesale market receives the red vegetable from Madanapalle, Thamballapalle and Punganur constituencies and some parts of Karnataka including Rayalpadu, Srinivasapuram and Lakshmipuram cross. The drastic changes in climatic conditions at these regions led to a drop in the yield this season. In addition to this, the skyrocketing prices of petrol and diesel also had its impact on the prices of tomatoes.