Friday, 30 June 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Soaring prices of tomatoes are forcing people to either drastically reduce their consumption or stop using them altogether across the State. Many people this correspondent talked to said that the whopping rise in tomato prices is disturbing their budget and so, it has disappeared from the kitchens of many.
The prices of this vegetable surging up to unprecedented levels is being attributed to a combination of factors like pre-monsoon heavy showers and the heat wave, resulting in the decreased production and the yawning gap in demand and supply. It is being sold for Rs 100 per kg in some Mandis in Dehradun.
Asked to explain the sudden surge in prices, the senior inspector of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Ajay Dabral said that the soaring demand is failing to match the dipping supply. “Apart from the quirky climate impacting its yield negatively, there is another important reason behind the dip in its production. The farmers are reluctant to grow tomatoes as they incurred losses in the past two years. They are being forced to switch over to cultivation of other vegetables which might prove profitable for them. However, we expect that things will be normal soon and the vegetables will be available in sufficient quantities in the markets,” he said.
A consumer Saraswati Gupta said, “Tomatoes are the essential vegetable used in almost every item we cook. Now, the homemakers are left with no other option but to reduce its consumption. Earlier, I used two tomatoes a day and now I am using half a tomato.”
A vegetable seller Fazil Ibrahim said that sales had drastically dipped with its prices going through the roof. “We are at the receiving end of things as there are very few buyers. We are helpless as far as the exorbitant prices are concerned as the supply chain has snapped,” he added.
