Rain impact: Tomato costs Rs 100 a kg

Bengaluru: Prices of vegetables, especially onion and tomato, are rising in Bengaluru and other parts of the State. The damage caused to the crops because of heavy rain is the main reason for the shooting prices. In a huge blow to consumers who are already reeling under inflation in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the price of tomato has for the first time breached the Rs 90-Rs 100 mark per kg.

The city gets tomatoes from Kolar, Hassan, Tumkur and other districts. Though there is no shortage of supplies, the price has been rising every day for the last one week. On Thursday, tomato was sold at Rs 80 per kg in the wholesale market while retailers sold it for Rs 80 – Rs 85 per kg. In other markets, tomato sells for Rs 90 a kg. Last Deepawali, tomato price scorched at Rs 70 a kg. It has touched Rs 90 for the first time in a decade, recall merchants, who expect prices to further go up to Rs 100 per kg. In Mangalore district, price has already peaked to Rs 100 per kg.

It is learnt that the tomato growers are not getting the benefit of this price spiral. Tomato grown in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is being exported to Telangana, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat etc. Traders attribute rising prices to heavy rains in the areas where vegetables are grown abundantly.

In general, prices of other vegetables, too, have gone up by about 50 percent because of floods in the State and neighbouring Tamil Nadu resulting in short supplies. Because of the increasing diesel and petrol prices, cooking oil and food grains have become dearer.