Wholesale tomato prices across states have more than doubled in July compared with the previous month as arrivals slowed, leading to a sharp rise in retail prices.
Average wholesale prices of tomato in key mandis rose to R2,245.38 per quintal in July, compared with R1,112.74 in June, according to data by Agmarknet under the ministry of agriculture. However, the average wholesale price in July this year is still 11% lower than R2,475 per quintal a year before, the data showed.
“Usually, during the rainy season, at times arrivals are hit due to difficulty in transiting the commodity. But since tomato production was higher in 2013-14 from a year before, the current price rise doesn’t seem to be a long-term phenomenon,” Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, chairman of National Horticulture Board (NHB), told FE.
Production in the 2013-14 crop year that ended in June rose 4.8% from a year earlier to 19.10 million tonne. However, arrivals of hybrid tomato across 30 key markets so far in July hit 43,672 tonne, compared with 54,632 tonne a year before and 62,491 tonne in the entire June this year, according to NHB data.
In Delhi, wholesale prices of tomato more than doubled to R3,108 per quintal on Wednesday from R1,762 a week earlier, although the latest price eased from R3,500 a quintal as of Tuesday. However, retail prices were ruling in the range of R5,000-8,000 per quintal from R3,500-6,000 a week before.
The sharp rise in prices of vegetables like tomato in July may drive up wholesale inflation again in July,
after dropping to -5.89% last month, and push up food inflation as well. Last fiscal, a 40.2% wholesale inflation in vegetables helped raise food inflation to a three-year high of 12.76%.
