New Delhi: Retail prices of vegetables, especially tomatoes have surged at painstaking rates across states of India as supplies drop due to heavy rain and flash floods, upsetting homemakers to manage their domestic budget at a time when the earnings of many households across the country have been hit due to the ongoing pandemic.
In Delhi, for instance, many consumers have reported on LocalCircles that they have paid between INR 70-120/kg for tomatoes in the last 60 days. Prices crossed INR 100/kg in other large cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Chennai, and even in tier 2 cities prices are now over INR 70/kg. Reports of 50% price increase in prices of tomatoes have come from households across most states of India in the last 60 days.
An unregulated hike in the price of both these vegetables is not new to the country. A survey released by LocalCircles in October 2020 had found that 70% of households are spending 25-100% higher on vegetables, including tomatoes.
Experts, citing government data, say that the trade of these perishable vegetables in the retail market goes up at different rates across states due to several factors from disrupted supplies, unchecked trade regulation, and the high prices of diesel that crossed INR 100 in many states before excise duty by Center and VAT rate cut by several State Governments were announced in early November.
LocalCircles has regularly been escalating citizen inputs on measures needed to lower the petrol and diesel prices to both Central Government and State Governments. With many posts and comments received from household consumers across India on the issue of rising tomato prices, to understand how much households are spending on average to purchase a kilogram of tomato, LocalCircles conducted another nationwide survey.
It also tried to understand the average amount most households paid this year for buying it as compared to 2020. Further, it tried to understand from households how they generally procure tomatoes and other vegetables. The survey received more than 19,000 responses from citizens across the 303 districts of India. Of which, 41% were from tier 1, 33% from tier 2, and 26% from respondents were from tier 3, 4, and rural districts.
