Tomato prices skyrocket as excess rains hit supply; onion prices crash

Bengaluru: The price of tomatoes has skyrocketed and is expected to soon touch Rs 100 per kg in the retail market. Excessive rains have damaged the crop, resulting in a low yield and high demand scenario, farmers said.

“This year, owing to the rains, the yield was poor. This along with virus attacks has reduced the yield drastically while the demand has remained high. Hence the prices have shot up,” said Lakshman Gowda, a tomato farmer from Kolar.

Dealers at the Kolar Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) said that the arrival of tomatoes to the market had reduced by as much as 40%.

“At the Kolar APMC, we used to receive close to 3,500 tonnes of tomatoes, and now we receive only about 2,000 tonnes a day. While crop loss in Karnataka has brought down the yield, the bad rains in Maharashtra has meant that a lot of produce from Karnataka is also being sent to meet the demand in North India. Hence the crisis,” explained C M R Srinath, a dealer at the Kolar APMC market.

On the other hand, the price of onion has plummeted and is available for as low as Rs 5 in the wholesale market. Dealers at the Yeshwantpur APMC market said that the moist weather conditions and rains had damaged the onions and as a result, only low quality onions were available. As a result, the prices have remained low, they said.

“Of the onions coming to the market, only about 10% is good and the rest is of poor quality. The rains damaged the crops bringing the yield down and now the moist weather conditions have meant that many are rotting even during transportation. Since good quality onion is not available, the price has remained low,” said Ravi Shankar from the Yeshwantpur APMC yard.

The situation is expected to remain so for at least the next two months after which some relief is expected.