Big rush for tomatoes at rythu bazars
Consumers waiting in a queue line to buy tomatoes at a subsidised price at Gopalapatnam Rythu Bazar in Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam: Even as weeks pass, the cost of tomatoes continues to soar and respite appears to be far from sight. With this, a majority of consumers are largely dependent on rythu bazars where the vegetable is sold at a discounted price.
To meet the growing demand, tomatoes are sold at rythu bazars at a subsidised price weekly twice or thrice. But the quantity that arrives in the rythu bazars is not matching up with the rising demand. And within a few hours of its arrival at these bazars, the stock is getting exhausted.
The Marketing department has made arrangements to sell subsidised tomatoes in all rythu bazars across Visakhapatnam district on Tuesday.
For bazars located in Gopalapatnam, Kancharapalem, Seethammadhara, Peda Waltair, Pedagantyada and Mulagada rythu bazars, Tuesday is a holiday. Similarly, Wednesday is declared as a holiday for other bazars in the city.
Keeping the demand for tomatoes in view, District Joint Collector KS Viswanathan instructed the Executive Officers of the rythu bazars to keep the bazars open on Tuesday even though it is a holiday.
The price of tomatoes in the open market is anywhere between Rs 120 and Rs 150 and there is a huge demand for the commodity from the consumers. Long queues are witnessed at rythu bazars at the tomato selling counters. People continued to wait hours-long to get a kilo of tomatoes at the bazars.
As per the orders of the State government, the Agriculture Marketing Department has procured 25 tonnes of tomato from Punganur to Visakhapatnam to meet the growing demand of the vegetable.
At rythu bazars, tomatoes will be sold to the consumers at a price of Rs 50 per kg. According to the Executive Officer of Gopalapatnam rythu bazar D Narayana, one kilo of tomatoes would be sold to a customer who shows an Aadhaar or ration card at the counter to bring home tomatoes at a subsidised price.
Other farmers of Gopalapatnam have been informed to open vegetable counters at the bazar since it will be a working day this Tuesday, he added.