Small eateries bear the brunt of soaring tomato prices in Vijayawada

Restaurants in Vijayawada struggle to cope with soaring tomato prices, cutting down quantity to maintain taste while avoiding extra charges to customers. Small businesses & roadside eateries bear brunt, while big restaurants strike out dishes with tomato puree base.

Restaurants and roadside eateries are one of the sections worst affected by the soaring price of tomatoes in the past few days.

“Tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger form the base of every dish. We cannot avoid them, we can only cut down the quantity in a way that it does not significantly affect the taste,” says Vijayawada Hotel Owners Association president P.V. Ramana.  

While restaurants, big and small, have been affected by the price hike, it is the small businesses and roadside eateries that have borne the brunt.  

Sri Sathya Sai mess near Ayyappa Nagar charges ₹60 for full meals. “While the big restaurants charge at least ₹200 for every side dish or curry, we charge only ₹30. How can we buy tomatoes by shelling out ₹120? We have significantly cut down the quantity, even if that means the quality getting compromised. We have no other go,” says Sankaram, who works at the mess. 

Budget restaurants like Good Morning Fast Foods have struck out some side dishes that have tomato puree as the base from the menu. 

“Prices of all vegetables have jacked up. Ginger is ₹260 per kg. Chillis are also costly. However, we do not want to charge extra for a dish as we hope this is only a temporary phenomenon,” says a chef from Ragada Waale, a famous ‘chaat’ centre that serves around 500 customers.

“Every year, we suffer for two-three months when rates of onions or tomatoes or ginger shoot up. We do not get tomatoes at subsidised rates from rythu bazar,” says M. Madhu of Southern Spice.