In Tomato Crisis, Rajasthan's 'Mummy-Daddy' Come To Telangana's Rescue

Hyderabad: Why did tomatoes sell at Rs 100 a kilo in Hyderabad when the arrivals in the market yard had in fact doubled? That is a question that has baffled many who have looked into the steep rise of tomato prices for past weeks.

According to a market official who spoke to NDTV, compared to the first two weeks of June last year when around 18,000 quintals of tomatoes arrived at Telangana's biggest vegetable market yard at Bowenpally, in 2016 more than 40,000 quintals had arrived.

Then how does that explain surge in prices at the same time?

Market yard officials say that is because there was virtually no local production in Telangana this year. They say in a usual year, locally grown tomatoes would have been sold by farmers and bought by retailers in the districts and would not reflect in the market yard arrivals.

Whereas this year, there were huge imports on an unprecedented scale from northern states like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, they say.
 At the Bowenpally market on Friday, for instance, 39 vehicles with tomatoes had arrived. Of this almost 50 per cent were from northern state, mainly Rajasthan. This particular hybrid variety, said to be from 'Jaipur' that has flooded the market this time is called 'Mummy-Daddy' variety. Market observers say prices have cooled off slightly because of this.

Another truckload of tomatoes had come all the way from Uttar Pradesh.

Gopi, a tomato trader, explained that this import from northern states was a new phenomenon this year. "There was no tomato crop because of drought here. Huge quantities came from Rajasthan, UP. I have never seen this happen before," he said.

A commission agent, Srikant, said, "Because tomatoes came from UP, Rajasthan, price was controlled at least to this extent. Otherwise it would have gone through the roof."

Farmers however blame middlemen for the high prices as they say the consumer pays yet the farmer does not benefit.

"The traders and middleman are making the profits, no one else," Adinarayana Raju, a farmer from Nalgonda, said.

Activists say the government has failed to create market intelligence to regulate sudden surges and falls that leave consumer and farmer both in the lurch.