Tomato prices may touch Rs 100 per kg in Pune, say traders

For the last three years, tomato growers in Maharashtra have complained of a virus attack which has led to serious loss of the produce. The virus, which was later identified as tomato mosaic virus, led to early fruit drop and immature ripening of the produce. Farmers had also blamed viral load in planting material for the problem.

Given the loss farmers have sustained in the last three years, Shriram Gadhave, president of the Vegetable Growers Association of India (VGAI) said growers in the summer tomato areas have drastically reduced their acreage. Thus, in the taluka of Junnar in the Pune district, which normally reports 20,000 acres of tomato growing area during the summer months, has reported a 70 per cent reduction. “Farmers have brunt their fingers multiple times and have thus diverted to other vegetables like cucumber, beans etc,” said Gadhave.

Gadhave said this season growers in the Narayangaon’s tomato market in the Junnar taluka are getting Rs 50 per kg. “This is more than the average price they command,” he said

Summer tomato is grown mostly in Pune and Satara in Maharashtra and it is also cultivated in the growing areas of Madanpalley in Andhra Pradesh. These areas have fixed irrigation facilities which allow farmers to grow tomatoes. The summer crop fetches a better price and farmers who normally grow this crop say this compensates for their higher cost of production.

The virus attack, Gadhave said, is predominant in the summer months while the crop which is taken post-June is able to fight this. “Farmers get better price of produce during the summer month as water is a scarcity then. During the monsoons when moisture stress is less prices drop naturally,” he said. The present price rise he said would continue for some more time.