Sale of cheaper tomatoes by NAFED hurting farmers, says AIKCC Gen Secy

Retail prices for tomatoes have shot up by over 500 percent across the country in the past one month. Farmers’ associations say farmers may shy away from sowing new crops, as prices are kept low.

The current intervention by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) in the tomato market is hurting farmers by bringing overall prices for markets down, Gunvant Patil Hangargekar, General Secretary, All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee has said.

“People have decided that prices for all vegetables must stay the same 12 months a year. But this can never be true for perishable goods such as fruits and vegetables. The prices will vary and the government must not intervene in the natural cycle,” he said, speaking during a Moneycontrol panel on food inflation held on July 18.

Retail prices for tomatoes have shot up across the country by over 500 percent. The prices spiked from Rs 30 per kg in June to an average of Rs 100 per kg in the first week of July and further to an average of Rs 200 per kg amid heavy rainfall that has impacted supply from different regions of the country.

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To provide some relief, the Department of Consumer Affairs on July 12 ordered distribution of the kitchen staple via NAFED and National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF), in major consumption centres to check the increasing retail price.

“The prices have not risen to a breaking point yet. NAFED’s intervention was not necessary and is hurting the farmers. If any intervention is against farmers, they will stop sowing the crop altogether,” he cautions. “The government must only check for manipulation of prices and must not intervene in the natural cycle of price rise and fall,” he adds.

Erratic weather patterns, including an early heat wave this year, unseasonal rainfall during May in Maharashtra as well as unusually heavy rainfall in some other parts of India during monsoons, have played an important role in disrupting tomato production across the country.

Production in the Himachal area too has been impacted by heavy rainfall. Disruption of highways and transportation has caused major post-harvest losses. Supply-chain disruptions too have added to the woes of tomato consumers awaiting price stabilisation.

Experts expect the prices to begin stabilising towards the end of August and early September with new crop arrivals expected from Nashik district, Narayangaon and the Aurangabad belt in Maharashtra, which has had deficient rainfall.

You can view the whole panel discussion here