 "tomatoes")
The Centre on Friday directed cooperatives National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) to sell tomatoes at a reduced rate of Rs 40 per kg from Sunday (August 20) given the decline in prices in the wholesale and retail markets.
Since July, both NCCF and NAFED have been selling tomatoes at a discounted rate on behalf of the consumer affairs ministry in Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar to boost domestic availability and contain price rise.
Initially, the ministry had asked the two cooperatives to sell tomatoes at a subsidised rate of Rs 90 per kg and later reduced the price to Rs 50 per kg. The price is now reduced to Rs 40 per kg.
So far, a total of 15 lakh kg of tomatoes have been procured by the two cooperatives, which are being continuously disposed of to 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).
NCCF and NAFED are procuring tomatoes from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for simultaneous disposal in major consumption centres where retail prices have recorded the maximum increase in the last one month.
