Solan: Tomato price picks up after steep fall

Tribune News Service

Solan, September 13

The abrupt rise in the tomato price has brought cheer to growers as the price of a 25-kg crate of the vegetable touched Rs 1,100 after plummeting to Rs 600 weeks ago at the Solan-based Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) today.

Secretary, APMC, Ravinder Sharma, said, “The tomato price has registered a steep increase for the past one week where the price is ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,100.”

He added that about 9 lakh crates had been sold till now in the APMC and this would rise further as good quality tomato grown here was in demand in other states.

The climatic conditions also favoured tomato growers as the presence of rainy and moist weather in other tomato-growing areas like Pune had increased the incidence of disease which affected its quality and yield, said APMC officials.

Growers were earlier disappointed as other states had opted for early-yielding varieties which were harvested at least one-and-a-half months in advance. This had reduced the demand and price of local tomato when the season began.

This has, however, come as an advantage as the crop of other states has been exhausted now and local tomato was fetching good return in the other states.

The price picked up from Rs 600 per crate a few weeks ago to Rs 950 last week.

The APMC, Solan, is the lone committee in the state where tomato is auctioned online. The tomato season began in the second week of June and the season was at its fag-end now.

Cultivation area up

• Area under tomato cultivation has been increasing every year
• In 2004, farmers produced 92,220 MT of tomato on 2,500 hectares
• The yield has risen to 1,25,400 MT grown on 4,200 hectares
• Tomato worth about Rs 1.5 crore is annually sold in APMC

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