Rs 200 To Rs 5: Farmers’ Woes Mount As Tomatoes Prices Crash

There is no end to farmers' woes as prices of tomatoes crashed significantly from as high as Rs 200 per kg to as low as Rs 10 per kg. Amid such sharp decline in the prices of tomatoes, farmers are compelled to either destroy or abandon the
kitchen staple.

The main reason attributed to the sharp dip in prices of tomatoes is due to arrival of excessive quantities of tomatoes and sluggish demand from other states which caught the farmers and everyone in the industry off-guard.

When asked why there is a sudden decline in the prices of tomatoes, Vipin Kumar Tiwari, a vendor in Noida Extension's Stellar Jeevan society said, "the prices of tomatoes have come down due to surge in their produce. The rise in produce of tomatoes led to fall in their prices." We are selling tomatoes for Rs 40 per kg, added the vendor.

When prices of tomatoes spiked earlier this year in June, some of the farmers managed to earn decently. One of the stories that became viral when prices of tomatoes skyrocketed to Rs 200-level in several parts of the country, was of Andhra Pradesh-based farmer Chandramouli. The farmer earned approximately Rs 4 crore in Just 45 days. Chandramouli reportedly managed to sell nearly 40,000 boxes of tomatoes and raked in a huge Rs 3-crore net income in a span of 45 days. Chandramouli revealed that he sowed a unique variety of tomato plant in the first week of April in 2023 on his 22-acre farming land.

When tomato prices surged, government also intervened and reduced the subsidized rate of tomatoes in July to Rs 80 per kg to provide relief to people from high prices.

Meanwhile, a Noida-based housewife, Anamika Singh is pleasantly delighted with the crash in prices of tomatoes and said, "we are able to buy tomatoes now without any worry of shelling out high prices. Earlier, we had devised our own strategy to cope with high prices of tomatoes and stopped buying them in large quantities."

Meanwhile, fresh tomato (local) in Noida are retailing for Rs 25 per kg in Noida on Big Basket.

Farmers who are currently selling their tomato produce at Rs 10 per kg said they find it difficult to recover their expenses and investment. Prices of tomatoes in Pune have come down to Rs 5 per kg. Farmers in various parts of India such asChikkaballapur, Mandya, Koppal, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Haveri started cultivation of tomatoes on large scale when prices jumped sky-high.

It will be interesting to see how long the prices of tomatoes remain in this range and what steps the government will take to protect from farmers?