Tomato prices to settle down soon: Official

Vijayawada: The fluctuations in the price of tomatoes in the state will settle down in the first fortnight of July, agriculture marketing commissioner Rahul Pandey said on Wednesday, explaining that one crop just got over and another one is in the process of reaching the market.

AP is a state which cultivates three tomato crops a year and the short gaps between these crops sometimes create prices fluctuations. “Tomato (prices) will settle within a week. This is routine, nothing to panic about it. Within a short period, things will settle down because one crop is getting over. We get three crops of tomatoes every year. One crop is getting over and soon the second crop will come into the market,” Pandey told PTI on Wednesday.

Pandey shared the list of prices at which tomatoes were selling in various Rythu Bazaars in the state-Rs 70 per kg in Machilipatnam, Rs 70 in MVP Colony, Vizag, Rs 50 in Rajamundry, Rs 64 in Kurnool and Rs 74 in Anantapur. As part of an official intervention to cool prices, Pandey said the office of the CEO of the Rythu Bazaar, which falls under his purview, has bought 12 tonne tomatoes and dispatched 10 tonne to Kurnool and two tonne to Kadapa.

He said arrangements are being made to dispatch a few tonnes of tomatoes to Vizag and Vijayawada. The highly perishable nature of the vegetable makes it extremely volatile to prices, he said, adding that on Tuesday, tomatoes cost Rs 90 in the open market and Rs 75 in Rythu Bazaars in Vizag.

Sudden showers will damage the crop and even a slight break in the supply chains will result in massive impact, he said. He said the objective is to control the price of tomatoes between Rs 50 and Rs 65, whereas official intervention comes in only when they hit the Rs 100 mark.

Pandey said the Rythu Bazaar prices are regulated for serving the twin purposes of shielding the farmer from loss-making prices and consumers from excessive prices. He noted that tomato is one vegetable along with onion, whose prices are monitored on a daily basis on the Continuous Monitoring of Agriculture Prices and Procurement (CMAPP) as they form the basis for most culinary preparations and were therefore crucial in nature.