800 tonne rot in open, while Amdavadis pay 10 times the selling price that farmers get.
Last year it was potatoes being dumped on roadside in Deesa. Now, it’s the turn of tomatoes, but in Kadi. Supplying tomatoes to urban areas no longer feasible, farmers in Kadi and surrounding villages have dumped more than 800 tonne of the crop. With supply exceeding demand, price of tomatoes was slashed to Rs1 to Rs1.50 per kg for farmers in north Gujarat.
Traders and farmers blame the ban on export of tomatoes to Pakistan for the situation.
“On one side there is bumper crop and on the other, tomato export to Pakistan via Wagah border has been banned. As a result, there is excessive supply of tomatoes across the country. In case of Gujarat, more than 800 tonne tomatoes is being dumped by 4,000 farmers of more than 20 villages,” said Dinesh Patel, a tomato farmer and trader in Kadi.
Last year, in a similar situation, potato farmers in Deesa had dumped their crop. “The prices of tomatoes in wholesale market have been slashed to Rs20 to Rs30 per 20 kg. In this situation, even the cost of logistics is not feasible. To take the tomato to urban areas of the country, farmers will have to shell out money from their pockets. So it is better to dump the crop in the fields and let it rot,” said member of Kadi APMC, Vinod Patel.
Farmers have incurred huge losses in tomatoes this year. Tomato farmer and Kadi APMC member Sharad Patel said that in case of tomatoes, farmers can have only one crop in a year. “The cycle of producing tomatoes takes a full year once the monsoon is over. Now, we cannot even grow any other crop this year. In this situation, only government can help us out by buying tomatoes at support price,” said Sharad Patel.
Interestingly, the same tomato which is rotting on roads of Kadi, is being sold for Rs10 to Rs15 per kg in retail markets of Ahmedabad. “The logistic costs, margin of wholesaler and retailer have maximum share in the price in city. So in Ahmedabad, the prices will remain high compared to the wholesale prices,” said Ishwar Patel, tomato trader in Ahmedabad.
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