Tomatoes have gone missing from our juice and salads. It's the latest whodunnit in town

In some places in India, tomatoes are going at Rs 250 a kilo, in others at Rs 180. (Photo by Toni Cuenca via Pexels)

You like tomato and I like tomahto – the price, though, we both don’t like. A fruit considered veggie by nutritionists, tomatoes have been steadily climbing the price chart of late. Its boyfriend, the onion, which went so cheap a few years ago that farmers were dumping it on the streets for the lack of a profit, is following suit! That’s the latest whodunnit in the marketplace: the tomato that has gone missing from our juice and salads.

Red, round and ready to party in the kitchen, is this fruit/vegetable putting on airs, acting above its station? In some places in India, it is going at Rs 250 a kilo, in others at Rs 180. It is that time of the year, argue some, that tomato prices go up, but this year they have become even dearer. Too much rain, too much sun… First, let’s blame the weather. And then our menu. Most desi dishes need tomatoes, from rajma to rasam. Without tamatar, what would we eat? Raw or ripe, puréed or sundried, cooked or bottled as sauce, here they come to better the taste. Are they sour or sweet, the jury is out on this, but they do impart a tartness.

Tomatoes have gone through their share of woes despite the myriad health benefits attributed to them. They are supposed to help with weight loss, perhaps prevent cancer, improve vision, and also aid healthier sperm production, but only in men. Not so good, it seems however, for skin; eczema, hives and some plain itching can happen if you overdose on tomatoes.

In Fried Green Tomatoes, a 1991 film directed by Jon Avnet, two women set up the Whistle Stop Café where breaded fried green tomatoes are a specialty. In India we make chutneys out of green tomatoes. From the hare tamatar ki sabji in the north to the thakkali masiyil in the south, underripe tomatoes have their own place in tomato land.

Next month Spain will celebrate La Tomatino, a festival designed to revere the tomato. In the Valencian town of Buñol, tomato fights have been fought since 1945. Tomatoes are squashed before they arc through the air and splash on everyone. Indians were introduced to this tomato-centric public extravaganza via the hit Hindi film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara in 2011, where within the span of a song we watched some of our favourite actors turn red with fun.

A short history of tomatoes shows that this wild species was born in the Andes Mountains of South America, mostly in Peru and Ecuador, and brought to the table in pre-Columbian Mexico. Etymologically, it was derived from the Aztec word tomatl, which was slightly unpronounceable. Our tomatoes have nice Indian names, like Rashmi, Rupali, Vaishali and Abhinav, among many others.

This current shortage is surprising because after China, India is the second largest tomato producer in the world with an annual production of 18,399,000 tonnes! Where are all the tomatoes off to? No one knows. We only know they have disappeared from our dining table.