The Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, indicated that prices of tomatoes are anticipated to decrease with the increase in the arrival of fresh crop from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, despite the increase in tomato prices in the retail market.
In the Monsoon session of the Parliament, MP Kartikeya Sharma asked an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha.
The Minister of Consumer Affairs added that the Government has begun purchasing tomatoes under the Price Stabilisation Fund and is making them available to consumers at a greatly reduced rate in order to curb the current increase in tomato prices and make them affordable.
NAFED procuring tomatoes from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra
“The National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) are continuously procuring tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and making it available at affordable prices in major consuming centres in Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan after subsidizing the price to the consumers,” the Minister explained.
“The tomatoes have been disposed initially at retail price of Rs.90/kg which has been reduced to Rs.80/kg from 16.07.2023 and further reduced to Rs.70/kg from 20.07.2023,” the statement said.
According to the minister, farmers may be encouraged to cultivate a larger crop as a result of the present price hike, which is anticipated to stabilise prices in the upcoming months.
In the event of a bumper crop during the peak arrival period, when prices tend to fall below economic levels and the cost of production, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DAFW) implements the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) to prevent growers of perishable agri-horticultural commodities from making distress sales, according to the Minister.
State government did not submit proposals for market intervention
He did note, though, that up to this point, the State Governments had not submitted any proposals for market intervention to address distress sales to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
He said that Operation Greens is carried out by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries to increase value addition and lower post-harvest losses of agricultural and horticultural products, especially tomatoes.
