Heavy arrivals have led to a steep decrease in price of tomato in the city. A kg of tomato was sold between ₹7 and ₹8 in the retail market on Saturday. It was ₹5, the wholesale rate, at Gandhi Market on Saturday. A carton of tomato (25 kg) was sold for ₹150 in the wholesale market.
The price of tomato, one of the essential cooking items in households, ranged between ₹30 and ₹35 a kg in January. The current drop was similar to the price trend in the third quarter of 2018. The price of tomato plummeted to ₹8 a kg in the retail market then.
The downward trend began during the first week of February. It went down to ₹20 a kg during the first week of February. The price was ₹10 a kg on Wednesday and Thursday. It has gone down further now.
Traders attribute the price drop to heavy arrivals outstripping the demand. They say that the Tiruchi market receives 25 lorries of supply from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh every day. There were supplies from Manapparai, Thuvarankurichi, Vaiyampatti, Oddanchathiram, Pollachi, Coimbatore, Theni, Dindigul and Kallupatti too.
“We require 15 to 20 loads of tomato for the markets in Tiruchi and its surroundings. However, we receive 25 loads daily. Heavy arrival will automatically lead to price drop,” said M. K. Kamalakannan, a tomato trader at Gandhi Market.
He said that the current trend might continue for a few more weeks. However, it was to be seen whether the lockdown restrictions might shoot up tomato price or not.