Rising tomato price raises demand for tomato puree, ketchup: Survey

Demand for tomato puree and ketchup has shot up by 40 per cent within one month as people have curtailed the use of tomato and prefer dishes which do not require much use of tomatoes, like lady finger or pumpkin etc, according to latest survey done by Assocham.
 
The survey was conducted in major cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. Over 1500 housewives took part in it.
 
According to survey, the local grocers have also increased stock of tomato puree/ketchup. The local grocer said, in the last two weeks there has been a rise in sales of products such as puree, ketchup as one spends less on buying puree/ ketchup than a kilo of fresh tomatoes.
   
A rise in the price of tomatoes has affected the budgets of families in the city. As per the Assocham recent survey, about 78 percent of households find difficult to manage their household budget and squeezing families’ finances to the lowest level due to sudden rise in price of tomatoes, pulses. The maximum impact was felt in Delhi-NCR followed Mumbai, Ahmedabad.
 
As per the government recent estimate, the country’s tomato output is pegged at 18.28 million tonnes in the 2015-16 crop year (July-June) as against 16.38 million tonnes in the previous year. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha are the major tomato growing states.
 
“The rise in pulses price has come as a double-shocker for the denizens. Vegetables are increasingly becoming ‘unaffordable’ as the prices have skyrocketed particularly in metros and major cities,” said D S Rawat, secretary general of Assocham.
 
Prices have gone up because of tight supply from the major growing states of the south where the rabi crop has been damaged during the flowering stage because of the severe drought, added the paper.
 
The price of tomato shooting up to Rs 80-100 per kg, nearly double of what it was selling for just a month back, the average housewife is either giving it a miss or picking up just a quarter of a kilo.
 
About 56 percent of the respondents said that they have curtailed the use of tomatoes and prefer dishes which do not require much use of tomatoes, like lady finger or pumpkin and some are substituting it with raw mango to get that sour taste.