Heavy rains in India’s southwest regions cause significant price hikes for tomatoes, greens and onions
India’s early monsoon rainfall has caused widespread damage to vegetable crops across the southwest regions, increasing wholesale prices of tomatoes, onions and greens in recent weeks, according to reports by The Economic Times.
“The impact of the damages inflicted on the plants by the heavy rainfall will be seen in the output and prices after three to four weeks,” Ajay Belhekar, a tomato grower from Junnar, Pune told the publication.
According to data from Agmarknet, prices of tomatoes have increased by 10-25 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra in the past week. However, at the wholesale markets in Nashik and Pune, tomato prices have almost doubled in the last month.
Prices of leafy greens including methi, spinach and coriander have also increased by 12-16 per cent.
Onion-growing regions in Maharashtra, including Nashik and Pune, have also experienced heavy pre-monsoon rainfall since early May damaging large quantities of crops.
“Unseasonal rains have lashed onion-growing districts of Dhule, Nashik, Ahilyanagar, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Pune, Solapur, Beed, Dharashiv, Akola, Jalna, Buldhana, and Jalgaon,” Bharat Dighole, founder-president of the Maharashtra State Onion Producers Farmers Association told Press Trust of India. “Prices were already down and have further slumped due to the unseasonal rains.”
The down pour has affected both harvested onions stored in open fields and standing crops still awaiting harvest.
