Tomato to squeeze kitchen budgets more as prices may rise further

Tomato prices aren't likely to ease up any time soon. In fact, the current ₹150 a kg rate may seem like a bargain in some days, experts said, as heavy rain continues to lash Himachal Pradesh, preventing harvests and disrupting logistics.

The Himachal crop was supporting supplies from Bengaluru, currently the main source of tomatoes for most parts of the country.

Vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower cucumber, leafy greens etc. may also become expensive because of the disruption caused by record rain in the north Indian hills. "The heavy rainfall in north India, especially in Himachal Pradesh, will damage most of the standing crop of tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, capsicum etc.," said SK Singh, director of the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research, Bengaluru. "Viruses and wilt will rot the crop due to waterlogging, which will result in prices moving substantially upwards."


Himachal is a major supplier of cabbage, cauliflower and capsicum not just to Delhi but many states of the country during this season. "Higher prices of vegetables leads to consumers shifting to pulses," said Singh. This could further lift their already high prices.

Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir saw heavy rainfall last week.

Delhi recorded the highest single-day rainfall in July in 40 years on July 8.

The closure of several key roads due to landslides will halt the transport of fruits and vegetables from the hills to the plains.

"We are afraid that the wholesale tomato prices may increase up to Rs 140-150 per kg in a week as the local supplies from states in north India will dwindle due to heavy rainfall," said Amit Malik, a tomato trader at Delhi's Azadpur wholesale market.

Tomato prices are currently ruling at Rs 40-110 per kg in the wholesale markets and Rs 100-160 per kg in retail in different parts of the country after growers reduced planting due to losses incurred last year.

The Bengaluru crop has also fallen short this year.

"There is a fall in tomato production in Bengaluru as the crop succumbed to the incidence of viral diseases that spread due to earlier unseasonal rainfall," said Singh.

Consumers can expect prices to soften only after August when tomatoes from other pockets such as Solapur, Pune, Nashik, and Solan start to arrive.