Triple whammy as dal, tomato & potato prices surge together

Sometimes it's pricey onions driving consumers to tears, at other times, potatoes or pulses. But this summer is different. A triple whammy of scorching tomato and potato prices, alongside pulses — arhar and urad — has wrecked family budgets.

In the last two years, arhar prices have doubled while those of urad have increased by around 120%. Even gram (chana dal), which is produced in large quantities and doesn't usually go ballistic, has climbed 85% in this period in Delhi.

Although it was clear by January that production of pulses was going to be hit because of last year's drought, government efforts to build stocks were either absent or ineffective. TOI had pointed out then that if imports were not catalysed, a sharp supply squeeze was imminent.

The case of the two everyday vegetables — potatoes and tomatoes — is slightly different. Both are shorter duration crops. But both have seen prices surge.



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Tomatoes are ripe for harvesting 60-70 days after transplanting while potatoes take 75-120 days to mature. The tomatoes coming to the market now were planted around March. While there were some unusually high temperatures in that period, the crop destruction was not staggering. Winter rains in the bigger producing states were not unduly distressing.

In any case, tomato farming is not completely dependent on rains. As a result, the agriculture ministry's second advanced estimates for horticultural crops had pegged the tomato crop for 2015-16 at 18.2 million metric tonne, up from the previous year's 16.4 million metric tonne.

Yet, prices of tomatoes have gone through the roof. Although the government says that in several parts of the country the prices are not so high, data put out by the department of consumer affairs and the National Horticulture Board shows that in most cities, prices have increased by 100-200% between April and June this year. A comparison of prices between June 2014 and June 2016 shows that in most cities, tomato prices have increased phenomenally.

Potato production was estimated to dip this year to about 46 million tonne from the previous year's 48 million tonne.

But the potato economy is different: a portion of each year's harvest goes into cold storages across the country and comes out for the market later. So, it is not simply a matter of supply and demand. One factor that has put the squeeze on potato supply this year is the blight that swept across potato fields in Bengal. This may have contributed to a rise in prices.