Tomato prices looking up for first time in weeks in Rayakottai mandi
The Hindu
Rayakottai tomato mandi sees price surge, farmers hopeful for better rates as demand rises and supply falls.
The Rayakottai tomato mandi is abuzz with activity with the loading and unloading of crates of tomatoes lined up by farmers. Numbers are quoted and bids are finalised sealing a price for the crates. For the first time in weeks, the price of tomatoes is looking up for the farmers at the mandi.
Until last week, tomatoes prices held little hope for farmers waiting to harvest their crop. The prices of the best quality of tomatoes hovered around ₹110 and ₹120 a crate.
However, with the start of this week, the tomato mandi is seeing a turnaround in prices. “In the last three days, the price of tomatoes at the mandi is going between ₹200 and ₹250 for the best quality, between ₹150 and ₹170 for the second grade and between ₹60 and ₹100 for the low grade,” says Srinivasan, who runs the Rayakottai tomato auction mandi.
A crate of tomatoes with 25 kgs are still going at suboptimal rate for the farmers.
According to Velan, a farmer of neighbouring Poovathi village, the best price was yet to come and is anticipated around the monsoons in June and July. “With the rains in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and also here, the production will be affected, affecting the supply. The prices will automatically go to up to ₹700 a kg,” he says in hope.
According to Mr.Srinivasan, the good yield across tomato growing regions has undercut demand overwhelmed by supply. “A week before, the price of tomatoes was ‘fully down’ and it has started to look up just now in the last three days,” he says, also echoing the anticipation of high price season around the corner. Since the rates were down harvesting was delayed to the extent possible by farmers, However the sudden rains of the last few days also damaged the crop adding to the factors influencing the price rise.
This week the mandi has been dealing with 1,000 and 1,500 crates, whereas in the preceding weeks, there were 2,000 crates coming in.
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