Tirupati: Tomato prices touch ₹100-mark in retail markets

Tirupati : The Madanapalle tomato market, recognised as Asia’s largest, witnessed a sharp rise in wholesale prices on Wednesday, with A-grade tomatoes reaching Rs 88 per kg. This surge follows a trend of increasing prices over the past 20 days, primarily due to a significant drop in supply that hasn’t matched rising demand.

For the past 4-5 days, prices have consistently hovered above Rs 80 per kg, indicating a potential for further increases. Comparatively, in July last year, prices soared to Rs 168 per kg and current trends suggest a similar scenario this year.

Consequently, retail prices have already surpassed the Rs 100 mark, with street vendors in various towns selling tomatoes between Rs 120-130 per kg that too of poor quality.

The main driver behind this price surge is a shortage of supply. Over the last three days, the Madanapalle market yard received between 390 to 550 tonne tomatoes, which was at least half of the normal supplies. This discrepancy has been a major factor in the price hike, exacerbated by surging demand. At the same time, the demand is surging abundantly pushing the prices to higher levels.

Adverse weather conditions have led to low yields for tomato farmers. Heavy rains this season adversely affected the crop and neighbouring states and even northern states have no immediate harvest, adding to the supply shortage.

As a result, traders from various regions flock to the Madanapalle market, further inflating demand due to the high quality and extended shelf life of tomatoes from this region because of the land and climatic conditions in Madanapalle region. As a result, the yield from this region will also have natural colour, shining and size and the farmers could benefit from it.

While farmers benefit from high prices, consumers face financial strain, as tomatoes are a staple in many dishes.

The marketing department is trying to stabilise prices by offering tomatoes at Rs.56 per kg in Rythu Bazars. However, consumers argue these efforts are insufficient since prices are heavily influenced by demand from other states. Additionally, long queues for lower-grade tomatoes discourage many.

As such, the ongoing tomato price surge in Madanapalle highlights a critical supply-demand imbalance exacerbated by adverse weather conditions and high external demand.

Despite efforts to mitigate the situation, consumers continue to struggle with the high costs and limited availability, indicating that the issue may persist in the near future.