The Department of Consumer Affairs has directed NCCF and NAFED to sell tomatoes at a retail price of Rs.40 per kg from 20 August in view of the continued decline in tomato prices in the wholesale and retail markets.
The retail sale of tomatoes in Delhi-NCR had started from 14 July. Till date, over 15 lakh kg of tomato had been procured by the two agencies which are being continuously disposed of to the retail consumers in major consumption centres in the country. These locations include Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan (Jaipur, Kota), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj) and Bihar (Patna, Muzaffarpur, Arrah, Buxar).
The retail price of tomatoes procured by NCCF and NAFED was initially fixed at Rs.90/- per kg which had been successively reduced in line with the decline in prices in order to ensure benefits to the
consumers. The last downward revision of the retail price to Rs.50/- per kg was on 15.08.2023, which now stands further reduced to Rs.40/- per kg w.e.f. 20.08.2023.
It may be recalled that on the direction of the Department of Consumer Affairs, NCCF and NAFED had commenced the procurement of tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for simultaneous disposal in major consumption centres where retail prices have recorded maximum increase in the last one month.