NCCF to dispose 60 tonnes tomatoes including Nepal supplies in Delhi over weekend to bring down prices further

livemint.com:

₹116.73 a kg in the retail market on 23 July and started rising again from 24 July onwards. On 11 August, the price was ₹124.43 per kg, data by consumer affairs’ price monitoring division show.

“To give the taste of feeling good to consumers ahead of Independence Day, we are planning to deploy 70 vans across Delhi-NCR and aim to sell around 60 tonnes of tomatoes over the weekend as against the usual 10-15 tonnes," NCCF Managing Director Anice Joseph Chandra told Mint. “We are also importing tomatoes from Nepal and the first consignment containing 10 tonnes of the kitchen essential which is in transit is expected to arrive soon.

The supplies from Nepal will be disposed in the markets of Lucknow, Kanpur, and Varanasi." The aggressive sale is being taken up to address the issues of an uptick in prices, long lines, less supplies due to disruption in the supply chain amid one more round of monsoon spell. At present, tomatoes are coming from some regions of Madhya Pradesh’s Indore in absence of substantial supplies from Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, she informed.

“With more supplies, prices in northern cities are expected to shrink significantly." Queries sent to consumers affairs ministry, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and NCCF remained unanswered till press time. While the major drop in Kharif production of tomato is seen in Himachal Pradesh where nearly half of the area is damaged in comparison to the previous year’s harvest, the output in Karnataka is estimated to be higher as compared to last year.

Around this time of the year, northern cities get tomatoes mainly from Himachal Pradesh. However, due to a rain deluge in the first week of July crops in the field were