Petrol is cheaper than Tomatoes, Green chillies bring tears in Tirupati

Tirupati: Petrol is cheaper than Tomatoes in Tirupati. While petrol is being sold at Rs 112 a litre, one kg of tomatoes or green chillies are bringing tears in the eyes of the denizens.

While chillies are selling close to Rs.200 per kg mark in retail market, the price of tomatoes has gone up from Rs 150 to Rs168 in the wholesale market in Asia’s largest tomato market

Madanapalle. In retail markets it is selling over Rs 200 per kg.

As chilli and tomato are must use in all preparations, people are demanding that the state government should organise sale of these two at subsidised rates through rytu bazars. Farmers and traders are expecting a further steep hike in the next few days, thanks to the incessant rains almost in the entire state.

They also anticipate that the retail prices may go to

unprecedented levels making it a scarce commodity for the common people.

Madanapalle market yard received about 360 tonnes of tomatoes on Wednesday. During the last few days, the market yard has been getting less than 500 tonnes of tomatoes while the demand is surging abundantly pushing the prices to a new level.

Adverse weather conditions were said to be the major factor contributing to the rise in prices of tomatoes and chillies. Market sources are worried over the adverse impact heavy rains on tomato crop yield.

As the demand from other districts and states has been on an ever increasing trend, the shortages in supplies has been pushing the prices up.

There has also been a huge drop in the arrivals of chillies since last month which could not meet the high demand. It was learnt that the farmers were upset with the lower prices they received during the last harvest which has forced them to shift to other crops. It may be mentioned here that the government had organised sale of subsidised tomatoes for couple of days but later it was stopped.