Salem: Tomato costs in Salem have skyrocketed to 50 per kilogram following the sudden drop in manufacturing resulting from summer time rain over the previous few weeks.
The sharp rise in tomato costs has come as an enormous blow to households and hoteliers throughout the district with rising gas costs. The farmers hinted that charges began to extend steadily within the second week of April and would proceed to rise within the upcoming days.
Within the first week of April, the kitchen staple was being offered at 10 per kilogram on the Salem vegetable market. “Now, the identical is being offered for 50 per kilogram,” stated S Moorthy, one of many farmers in Vazhapadi in Salem district.
Mecheri and Vazhapadi in Salem district and Rayakottai in Krishnagiri district are the principle tomato cultivation areas for the entire of Tamil Nadu. Tomatoes cultivated in these three areas are despatched to 5 main markets, together with Pollachi and Coimbatore in Coimbatore district, Oddanchatram in Dindigul district, Thalaivasal in Salem district and Koyambedu in Chennai. The retailers in these markets would then ship tomatoes to different retail vegetable markets within the state.
The associated fee for 15 kilograms of tomato within the wholesale market was 100 when the retail worth was 10 per kilogram. “Now, the identical tomato is being offered for 700 within the wholesale market, resulting from which, its fee has touched 50 within the retail market,” stated Okay Nethaji, a vendor within the Salem vegetable market.
The farmers acknowledged that tomato manufacturing was affected resulting from sudden summer time rains throughout the state. “The tomato buds received withered,unable to resist the whirlwind and rains,” the farmers added.
“The demand for tomatoes could be round 10 tonnes however solely two tonnes of tomatoes would attain the marketplace for gross sales,” they added.