Price of tomato has shot up to ₹100 per kg in Tiruchi’s retail market. Till two weeks ago, one kg of tomato was being sold between ₹15 - 20 a kg.
The price rose gradually and swung between ₹50 - 60 a week ago and now hovers in the range of ₹80 to ₹100 a kg. A retail grocery trader at Cantonment in Tiruchi was selling a kilo of tomato at ₹100 on Thursday.
However, wholesale traders at Gandhi Market quote ₹60 for one kg of tomato and it was ₹10 higher in Gandhi Market’s retail shops. The rate was the same at the Uzhavar Sandhai in Thennur.
The price of one box (25 kg) of tomato hovered between ₹1,400 and ₹1,600 at Gandhi Market, traders said. “Out of a 25 kg box, 2 kg would have rotten during the transportation period. Traders will have to make profit with the remaining 23 kg of tomato,” said an official of Uzhavar Sandhai.
Since the price was high, customers shied away from buying tomatoes. “Though tomato is an important commodity for cooking, not many customers prefer to buy one kg of tomato at ₹100. They manage the situation by limiting their purchase to 200-300 grams,” said G. Manikandan, a retail grocery trader at Cantonment.
Traders attribute the high price to the dwindling arrival from Andhra Pradesh, Krishnagiri, Theni and Oddanchathiram. A wholesale trader in Gandhi Market said that as against the arrival of 20 loads, it had come down to just four to seven loads per day and this situation had persisted for the last 10 days, he said.
