New Delhi: Amid hike in tomato prices in the retail market, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Ashwini Kumar Choubey said that tomato prices are expected to come down due to increased arrival of the new crop from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
This was in response to an unstarred question by MP Kartikeya Sharma in the Rajya Sabha in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. The Consumer Affairs Minister further said that in order to arrest the current rise in tomato prices and make them available to the consumers at affordable prices, the government has started procuring tomatoes under the Price Stabilization Fund and making them available to the consumers at a highly subsidized rate. ,Also read: ’50k stipend, 5 hours work’: Gen Z intern demands during interview,
“The National Cooperative Consumer Federation (NCCF) and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) are continuously procuring tomatoes from the mandis of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and making them available at affordable prices in major consumer centers of Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan after subsidizing the cost to the consumers,” the minister said.
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“Tomato has been initially sold at a retail price of Rs 90 per kg, which has been reduced to Rs 80 per kg with effect from 16.07.2023 and further to Rs 70 per kg with effect from 20.07.2023,” the statement said.
The Minister said that the current increase in tomato prices may encourage farmers to grow more tomato crop, which is expected to stabilize the prices in the coming months.
The Minister said that the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DAFW) implements the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) to protect producers of perishable agri-horticultural commodities from making distress sales in the event of a bumper crop during the peak arrival period, when prices fall below economic levels and cost of production.
He, however, added that the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has so far not received any proposal from state governments for market intervention to address distress sale of tomatoes.
Further, he said that the Ministry of Food Processing Industries implements Operation Greens to enhance value addition and reduce post-harvest losses of agri-horticultural commodities including tomato.