Centre’s new directive to control spiralling prices of tomatoes | India News

NEW DELHI: With tomato prices going through the roof, the Centre on Wednesday announced new measures to ease the burden on the common man.
The consumer affairs ministry has directed cooperatives such as Nafed and NCCF to procure tomatoes from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for distribution in major consumption centres.
The ministry announced that after the procurement, tomatoes will be sold through retail outlets at a discounted prices in the Delhi-NCR region, where prices have remained above Rs 100 for several weeks.National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) will undertake the procurement of tomatoes.
According to the ministry, the cities where tomatoes will be distributed have been identified on the basis of the absolute increase in retail prices over the past one month, where the cost is above the all-India average.
Key consumption centres in states having higher concentration of the identified centres will be further selected for the intervention, it said.
The ministry mentioned that the periods during July-August and October-November are generally the lean production months for tomatoes.
“July coinciding with the monsoon season, adds to challenges related to distribution and increased transit losses adding to price rise,” it said.

Currently, the supplies coming to markets in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and some other states are mostly from Maharashtra especially Satara, Narayangaon, and Nashik, which is expected to last till this month-end, it said.
Madanapalle (Chittoor) in Andhra Pradesh also has continued arrivals in reasonable quantities. The arrivals in Delhi-NCR are mainly from Himachal Pradesh and some quantity comes from Kolar in Karnataka, it added.
The ministry said the new crop arrivals are expected soon from Nashik district.
Furthermore, in August, additional supply is expected to come from the Narayangaon and Aurangabad belt. Madhya Pradesh arrivals are also expected to start.
“Prices are anticipated to cool down in the near future, accordingly,” the ministry noted.
Retail price of tomato has touched up to Rs 200 per kilogramme in some parts of the country including Delhi amid incessant rains.
Besides tomatoes, the rates of other vegetables have also firmed up.
As per the data maintained by the ministry, the all-India average retail price of tomato was ruling at 104.38 per kg on Monday, with maximum price quoted was Rs 200 per kg in Swai Madhopur and minimum was Rs 31 per kg in Churu in Rajasthan.
Tomato is produced almost in all the states in India, though in varying quantities.
Maximum production is in southern and western regions of India, contributing 56-58 per cent of all-India production.
Southern and Western regions being surplus states, feed to other markets depending on production seasons.
The production seasons are also different across regions. The peak harvesting season occurs from December to February.
(With inputs from PTI)