Centre further slashes tomato price, to be sold at Rs 70 per kg from tomorrow

The Centre has directed cooperatives NCCF and NAFED to sell tomatoes at a retail price of Rs 70 per kg rate from Thursday (July 20), the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said on Wednesday. The tomatoes procured by NCCF and NAFED had been retailed, initially, at Rs 90 per kg and then reduced to Rs 80 per kg from July 16, 2023. The reduction to Rs 70 kg will further benefit the consumers, the ministry said.

Earlier this month, the Centre had directed the NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers'Federation) and NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation) to procure tomatoes from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra for distribution in major consumption centres where retail prices have recorded the maximum increase in the last one month. 

The move came after the prices of tomatoes shot up to over Rs 200 in some parts of the country due to supply disruption caused by heavy rainfall.  

The retail sale of tomatoes in Delhi-NCR started on July 14 2023. Till 18th July, a total of 391 MT of tomatoes had been procured by the two agencies which are being continuously disposed of to the retail consumers in major consumption centres of Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, UP and Bihar.