Now, Tomato prices at Rs 50 per kg in Koyambedu wholesale market

Chennai: After three months, tomato prices have surged from Rs 50 to 65 based on the quality due to the shortage in supply at Koyambedu wholesale market. Traders said that the rates are expected to increase further during the next two weeks due to consecutive dip in arrival.

Till December 2021, tomatoes were sold for Rs 100 per kg. With a slight increase in the supply from January 2022, the rate reduced to Rs 50 per kg. And from then there was a drastic fall in the prices, the market received over 55 lorries of tomato which was sold for Rs 10 - 20 per kg till last week, Koyambedu market sources sources said.

"With the demand for Tomatoes picking up in neighboring states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the supply for Tamil Nadu is hit. Currently the market is getting less than 42 vehicles of tomatoes escalating the demand increasing the prices beyond Rs 50 per kilo, " said M Prabhakaran, member of Koyambedu Wholesale Tomato Traders Association.

In Tamil Nadu, only a few districts produce tomatoes and Tenkasi is the key district. The continuous increase in fuel and transportation prices have added to the tomato price. The price of other vegetables have also increased in the past two weeks, sources said.

"The arrival of stock decides the prices of vegetbales and in case of tomatoes it will either be stable or increase further, but there are no chances for reduction of price till June," said N Dhanasekar, a tomato wholesale trader at the market.