After onions, it’s the turn of the tomato, another staple vegetable, to burn a hole in the pocket of customers, with its price hitting an all-time high here in Mysuru.
Owing to the recent untimely rain, triggered by the depression in the Bay of Bengal, the crops in most places have been destroyed, making it an expensive commodity.
The wholesale price at the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) in Bandipalya here was Rs. 40 to Rs. 45 per kg on Tuesday. The wholesale price on Monday was Rs. 50 a kg. This means, the retail price is Rs. 50 to Rs. 55 a kg.
Fine quality
A representative of the APMC market told The Hindu that 2,500 crates of tomato crop had arrived in the market on Tuesday, and the fine quality produce was being sold at Rs. 40 to Rs. 45 a kg. The poor quality (smaller in size) ones are being sold at Rs. 20 a kg.
He cited untimely rain for the skyrocketing prices.
The market gets the produce mainly from Pandavapura and K.R. Pet, besides a few other places in Mysuru and Mandya districts.
There is a drop of over 500-600 crates to the market in the recent days, due to the drop in production. Otherwise, the market gets over 3,000-3,200 crates a day.
The normal arrival crosses over 8,000-9,000 crates on Sunday here since Monday is market day in Kerala, which incidentally depends largely on Mysuru markets for its veggies needs.
The selling price even at 43 HOPCOMS outlets is between Rs. 45 to 46 a kg.
Crop rotting
Hopcoms president D.T. Bore Gowda also cited untimely rain as the main reason for drop in production. Rain during harvest time destroys the crop and results in rotting. Only the good ones are picked up and sold to the market.
Therefore, the prices have gone up.
He also said quality tomato is not coming to the market and the growers had suffered losses.
Onion prices stabilising
Nevertheless, the prices of onion, which had gone up substantially and was selling at Rs. 80 a kilo, had stabilized. It took more than six months to stabilise the prices.
At HOPCOMS, onion is sold at Rs. 28 a kilo.
The price of good quality onions is around Rs. 30-35 a kg in Devaraja Market.
