Recipes diluted as tomatoes cost Rs 100/kg

Visakhapatnam: Tomatoes turn dearer as production shrinks resulting in a huge gap between demand and supply.

The kitchen staple is something not many would be able to do away with in their daily menus.

However, with the cost of tomatoes touching Rs 100 a kilo in retail outlets, many homemakers have become stingy in incorporating the otherwise main ingredient in their chutney, gravy, pickle and the staple dal.

Most of the tomato stocks arrive in Visakhapatnam from Madanapalle in Chittoor and Raipur in Odisha, and Maharashtra. Currently, the stock is being sourced from Maharashtra. "But the situation is likely to ease from June second week as the stock arriving from Madanapalle is expected to resume. For six rythu bazaars, we received 11 tonnes of tomatoes on Tuesday. With plans afoot to supply tomatoes at a subsidised rate at rythu bazaars from Wednesday, relief is certainly in store for the consumers," assures P Papa Rao, Deputy Director of Marketing Department, to The Hans India.

With tomato prices touching Rs 100 in retail markets, the stocks that arrive in rythu bazaars are getting depleted in a jiffy. Long queues are witnessed in rythu bazars at tomato stalls as consumers wait for their turn to bring the vegetable home. "Given the price, we have sliced the consumption of tomatoes to half. Earlier, we used to consume two kilos of tomatoes a week. Until the price falls, we intend to incorporate less quantity of the vegetable in our daily cooking," says S Rama Lakshmi, a resident of MVP Colony, sector-IV.

On Tuesday, a kg of tomatoes was priced at Rs 70 at rythu bazars. Last week, the same quantity of the vegetable was supplied to consumers at Rs 60 at a subsidised rate for a day. Providing relief to the consumers, the marketing department officials mention that the supply of tomatoes at subsidised rate will be facilitated at select rythu bazaars for the next few days.