It is notable that the price of tomato was less than Rs. 10 per kg a few months ago. Recently, the price started going up quickly and has now sky-rocketed.
As it has been raining quite heavily in the Northern states, tomato harvest is down and they need to get it from the southern states. The farmers of Andhra and Karnataka find it profitable to sell tomato the northern states at a higher price and sell. This has an adverse impact leading to a large reduction in the quantity of tomato reaching Chennai wholesale vegetable markets. Consequently, the price of tomato has shot up.
As per yesterday, the tomato was sold at Rs. 70 per kg in the wholesale vegetable market in Koyambedu and in retail markets such as Jam Bazaar at Rs. 100 per kg.
In order to prevent this exploitation of tomato shortage selling it at very high prices, the state government has arranged to sell tomatoes at Rs. 50 per kg in the 20 farm-fresh shops at different locations in the Chennai Metro. The public had naturally been attracted to buy tomatoes from these shops.