MUMBAI: The retail price of onion has touched Rs 50 per kg across the city this week. Another Kitchen Chief, Humble TomatoThe price has come down to Rs 70-80 per kg. Traders are blaming excess rains and Cyclone Gulab for the crop shortfall. They say that the rates will come down marginally only around November 15 and will return to normal in December.
Within just 40 days, from a wholesale rate of Rs 2.50 per kg in the first week of September, tomatoes are now priced at Rs 25 per kg in Pimpalgaon, Nashik, India’s largest tomato wholesale market. Heavy rains and Gulab cyclone reportedly damaged hectares of farms in September Nashik and Kolhapur.
Asavari Joshi, a resident of Goregaon, said, “When consumption is low during the fasting season of Navratra, I am surprised that the prices have gone up so much. With the skyrocketing prices of edible oil, LPG and petrol-diesel, monthly households Budget is low. Too much pressure.”
Tomato wholesaler Mangal Gupta said, “The prices are usually 20% higher in September-October, but this month due to heavy unseasonal rains there is heavy crop loss, so the rates are high. They last for 15 to 20 days. will be reduced inside as the harvest of the new crop sown in September will begin.”
“Due to excessive rains, early blight and late blight disease have destroyed tomato crop in Solapur, Nashik, Satara and Pune districts,” Gupta said.
Ashok Walunj, APMC director of onion-potato market, said, “Onion has withered due to heavy rains and floods in Maharashtra. The wholesale price is Rs 35-38 per kg and the retail price is Rs 50. We expect a slight drop after Diwali but it will be completely normal in December.”
Walunj termed it as “an act of nature which neither Narendra Modi nor Sonia Gandhi can control”.
Shankar Pingale, another director of APMC, Sabzi Mandi, pointed to the failure of tomato crop due to excessive rains. “There is a severe shortage of tomatoes across the country. At present the wholesale rate in Vashi is Rs 30-45 per kg, depending on the grade. The prices will come down only after November 15, after the new crop is harvested.”
APMC trader Balasaheb Badade said onion prices will remain high during the festive season. “The rates will fall only after Diwali. There has been a delay in harvesting of fresh crops, besides there has been a lot of damage to the buffer stock, which has a short shelf life,” he said.
(Inputs from BB Nayak in Navi Mumbai and Tushar Pawar in Nashik)
Within just 40 days, from a wholesale rate of Rs 2.50 per kg in the first week of September, tomatoes are now priced at Rs 25 per kg in Pimpalgaon, Nashik, India’s largest tomato wholesale market. Heavy rains and Gulab cyclone reportedly damaged hectares of farms in September Nashik and Kolhapur.
Asavari Joshi, a resident of Goregaon, said, “When consumption is low during the fasting season of Navratra, I am surprised that the prices have gone up so much. With the skyrocketing prices of edible oil, LPG and petrol-diesel, monthly households Budget is low. Too much pressure.”
Tomato wholesaler Mangal Gupta said, “The prices are usually 20% higher in September-October, but this month due to heavy unseasonal rains there is heavy crop loss, so the rates are high. They last for 15 to 20 days. will be reduced inside as the harvest of the new crop sown in September will begin.”
“Due to excessive rains, early blight and late blight disease have destroyed tomato crop in Solapur, Nashik, Satara and Pune districts,” Gupta said.
Ashok Walunj, APMC director of onion-potato market, said, “Onion has withered due to heavy rains and floods in Maharashtra. The wholesale price is Rs 35-38 per kg and the retail price is Rs 50. We expect a slight drop after Diwali but it will be completely normal in December.”
Walunj termed it as “an act of nature which neither Narendra Modi nor Sonia Gandhi can control”.
Shankar Pingale, another director of APMC, Sabzi Mandi, pointed to the failure of tomato crop due to excessive rains. “There is a severe shortage of tomatoes across the country. At present the wholesale rate in Vashi is Rs 30-45 per kg, depending on the grade. The prices will come down only after November 15, after the new crop is harvested.”
APMC trader Balasaheb Badade said onion prices will remain high during the festive season. “The rates will fall only after Diwali. There has been a delay in harvesting of fresh crops, besides there has been a lot of damage to the buffer stock, which has a short shelf life,” he said.
(Inputs from BB Nayak in Navi Mumbai and Tushar Pawar in Nashik)
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