Rising Prices: After Lemon, Tomato Turns Untouchable In Bhubaneswar & Cuttack

Bhubaneswar: After lemon, now tomato has started vanishing from vegetable basket of commonman in twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack due to skyrocketing prices in the last few days.

The prices of tomato, which is an essential ingredient in the culinary practices of Odia people, have witnessed an abnormal rise in the market for the last two weeks. The red vegetable, which used to be sold at Rs 30-40 per kg last week, is now sold at Rs 80 per kg in the two major cities of the state. In the areas closer to rural market, its price has also double from Rs 25-30 per kg to Rs 50-60.

According to vegetable traders, the prices of the tomato have been rising mostly due to short supply from local producers.  The vegetable is supplied to the two cities from Keonjhar, Banki and other nearby places.

“This year, tomato production in the state has come down due to adverse climate condition. Normally, the market is flooded with tomato at this time of the year. But this year, the local supply has come down drastically,” said a member of Bhubaneswar Vegetable Traders’ Association.

He said due to short supply from local market, the traders resort to importing it from Bengal, Bengaluru and Nasik. As prices rise in those markets, it pushes up the cost here.

Since tomato is a perishable product and there is no cold storage facility, the traders do not order it in high quantity like potato or onion. Since the procurement is far less than the demand, the price is jacked up, he added.

Weather is another contributing factor for unusual price rise. Due to intense heatwave condition, a large portion of the tomato gets spoiled during the transit itself.

However, the traders expected that the prices will come down after 15-20 days when local tomato will be harvested by the farmers. Since first round of summer harvest has been exhausted, it will take at least two more weeks for next lot of harvest to come to the market, they added.