Dwindling tomato prices cause worry to growers in Chittoor district

Tirupati: The dwindling tomato prices have been causing worry to the growers in Chittoor district for the last one month. Tomato sales were severely affected with the lockdown from April to June as the consumption hit a new low in the absence of any functions and other activities and closure of hotels and hostels. Since July, the prices have started soaring up and reached above Rs 50 a kg for first grade.

The heavy rains in Madanapalli region have caused delay in cultivation which has severely hampered the supplies and brought wings to the prices. On the contrary, during lockdown, there were huge supply while there was no demand which brought down the prices to Rs 5-10 a kg in Madanapalle market yard considered as the biggest in Rayalaseema.

Though the new crop will take some more time to enter the market, with the huge availability of crop in Anantapur district, prices have started coming down in Madanapalle. Due to non-availability of sufficient stocks, buyers were not coming to Madanapalle. The traders in the market yard were saying that only 50-60 percent of the normal supplies are coming daily to the yard.

For the last one week, 300-400 MTs of crop has been coming to the yard. On Monday, 365 tons have arrived said market yard secretary D Manohar. He said the price of first grade tomatoes was between Rs 25-30 while the medium size was sold at Rs 25. The least price was in between Rs 10-12. However, he felt the price may not fall further in the coming days as the new crop will attract the buyers and give a competitive price for the crop.

A trader in the market yard SK Basha observed the prices have been witnessing slight variations of Rs 5-10 only for the past few days which may continue for some more time. The heavy rains in Telangana also will help the prices to remain more or less stable, he felt.

The exports to Guntur, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Chattisgarh, Kanpur and other areas have helped the growers to get reasonable prices till now. On Sunday, about 60 tons of tomatoes have been exported to Delhi from Madanapalle.