CHITTOOR: The price of one kg of tomatoes touched Rs 100 in Madanapalle market in Chittoor district on Tuesday. This is the highest price of a kg tomatoes reported in the wholesale market in the last five years. The tomato price touched Rs 98 per one kilo in November 2016. Less arrivals to the market reportedly due to change in climatic conditions have resulted in the price rise of tomatoes.
Madanapalle market has also not been getting enough stocks from western parts of the mandals including Thamballapalle, Punganur areas and the bordering villages of Karnataka such as Lakshmipuram, Rayalpadu, Gownepalli and Srinivasapuram. Thamballapalle is the major supplier of the crop to Madanapalle market with around 70-75 per cent of arrivals.
Tomatoes have been exported to Telangana, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka from Madanapalle market. The prices of higher quality tomatoes, which were sold at Rs 6 to Rs 14 per kilo at the wholesale market in September-end and Rs 42 to `48 in October, shot up to Rs 50-Rs 70 in the last one week.
Majority of the produce from the market is being exported to Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra Pradesh and the border areas of Odisha. It may be noted that the tomato farmers have suffered losses as the prices fell up to Rs 2-3 per kilo during April.
V Narayana, a trader, said that less arrivals will automatically increase the price. On Tuesday, the arrivals of first grade tomatoes decreased, which resulted in a hike in price up to Rs 100. The arrivals at the Madanapalle market have not been increasing beyond 300-450 metric tonnes, which is less when compared to normal days.