In a relief to consumers amid high tomato prices, the central government on Wednesday said it has directed NCCF and NAFED to sell tomatoes at a retail price of Rs 70 per kg rate from Thursday, July 20, 2023. Initially, the tomatoes procured by NCCF and NAFED were retailed at Rs 90 per kg last week on July 14, which was then reduced to Rs 80 per kg from July 16.
The retail sale of tomatoes in Delhi-NCR started on July 14 by the NCCF and NAFED, even as the tomato prices at local mandis reached as high as Rs 250 per kg. Till July 18, a total of 391 MT of tomatoes had been procured by the two agencies which are being continuously disposed of to the retail consumers in major consumption centres of Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, UP and Bihar.
“The Department of Consumer Affairs has directed NCCF and NAFED to sell tomatoes at retail price of Rs 70 per kg rate from July 20, 2023, in view of the declining trend in tomato prices. The tomatoes procured by NCCF and NAFED had been retailed, initially, at Rs 90 per kg and then reduced to Rs 80 per kg from July 16, 2023. The reduction to Rs 70 kg will further benefit the consumers,” the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said in a statement on Wednesday.
On the direction of the Department of Consumer Affairs, the NCCF and NAFED had commenced the procurement of tomatoes from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for simultaneous disposal in major consumption centres where retail prices have recorded the maximum increase in the last one month.
For the last few weeks, the retail price of tomatoes has risen sharply and touched as high as Rs 250 per kg across major cities owing to the lean season plus heavy rains.
According to the RBI’s ‘Bulletin — July 2023’ released on Monday, tomato, being a highly perishable item with a very short crop duration, exhibits considerable seasonal variation in prices but these episodes are short-lived.
“The average duration of a high price episode, derived from the Markov Chain transition probability matrix, shows that prices stay above Rs 40 for an average duration of 2.6 fortnights, whereas prices remain below Rs 20 for an average duration of 10 fortnights,” the RBI said in the report.
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