Indian tomato traders are taking advantage of Pakistan’s domestic shortage of the crop, shipping around 1,300-1,400 tonnes of the product across the border each day.
Pakistan’s domestic tomato crops in Sindh and Balochistan have been devastated by the flooding from this year’s monsoon season.
Wholesale prices are reportedly around US$350-400 per tonne, and in the last few months retail prices have gone as high as Rs80 (US$0.92) per kg.
Indian traders are taking advantage of the market shortage, and have been trucking significant volumes across the border, largely from Nashik, which is currently in its tomato production peak.
“As many as 80-90 trucks of tomatoes `each carrying about 16 tonnes` are crossing Attari-Wagah border every day,” Rajdeep Singh Uppal, vice-president of the Amritsar Export Association, told the South Asian News Agency (SANA).
That kind of volume has been heading over the border for around two weeks, he said, and it could continue until January.
With Nashik the main source of tomatoes at this time of year in India, the exodus of produce is also keeping prices high on that side of the border.
Tomatoes have been retailing at around Rs35 (Indian) per kg in Indian markets, Gurdeep Singh Nagra of the Jalandhar Vegetable Market told the Indian Express over the weekend, a rise from Rs20-25 per kg just a week prior.
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