Tomato and ginger prices soar in Chennai

Tomato prices have nearly doubled in the wholesale Koyambedu market, as the supply has nearly fallen by 20 per cent this month, according to traders.

S Chandran, president of Licensed Vegetable Merchants Association, told Express that the prices of tomatoes, which rose to nearly Rs 40 three days ago, was due to less yield of the crop following inadequate rains.

The market is totally dependent on Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. However, this month, the supply has been erratic following the less production of tomatoes. Due to poor rains, as such the price of tomato, which was selling around Rs 15 to Rs 20 last month, is now hovering in the range between Rs 32 and Rs 40. Interestingly, Koyambedu was getting around 500 tonnes of tomatoes per day, but now the supply has fallen by 20 per cent. “We used to get 55 to 65 lorries of tomatoes a day. Each lorry would carry around seven to eight tonnes of tomatoes. But now we are getting around 40 lorries. This is nearly 20 per cent short of what we were usually getting,” says Chandran.

The rise in price of tomatoes may have forced many households to rethink on going in for tomato chutney, which is a favourite side dish with idly or dosas, or tomato rasam. “Earlier, we consumed more than two kilograms of tomatoes per week. Now, we are cutting down on our consumption due to the steep increase in prices,” says Dhanu, a homemaker from Chinmaya Nagar.

“Now either it is tamarind rasam or coconut chutney so that we save money to buy other vegetables,” she adds.

But the good news is the prices of tomato is likely to fall by June or July provided the monsoon is normal. “We expect the prices to be normal by June or July,” says Chandran.

The demand is also not that high during the month, as most of migrant population has returned to their native places to spend the summer vacation, says another trader. Meanwhile, ginger price is also on the upswing due to less yield in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.  

Koyambedu market is getting only half the supply of its earlier supply. Earlier, we used to get five to six trucks supplying ginger to the market. Now we get only 50 per cent of them, says Chandran. He says the steep rise in ginger price is attributed to the end of the season as well as low yield. “The prices would stabilise when we get the new crop in the next 40-45 days,” he says. Currently, ginger costs Rs 160 to Rs 170 per kilogram. Last month, it was around Rs 100 to Rs 110.