March 14, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 24, 1428

KARACHI, March 13: Steep fall in tomatoes’ prices that are selling for cheap Rs5 to Rs6 a kg must have ruined small growers in the periphery of the city dependent on tomato crop this season.

Tomato growers now find themselves in a tough situation following a massive drop in price of tomato to Rs2.0-2.50 per kg at wholesale market.

In many areas retailers are charging Rs15 for 2 to 2 and half kg from consumers. On January 1, 2007 tomato was priced Rs18 per kg at retail and it fell to Rs10 on March 1, 2007. On December 1, 2006, it was selling at Rs40 per kg while on September 1, 2006 it was priced at Rs45 per kg.

The marked decline however favours consumers, but it has virtually crippled the growers financially. After having suffered massive losses this season, they may opt cultivation of some other vegetables next season or scale down tomato acreage.

A leading tomato grower Abdul Waheed of Bukharo, District Thatta, told Dawn that tomato in the market was selling at throwaway or almost free to the consumers. “Usually the production cost of tomato comes to Rs5 a kg to the growers and they feel satisfied if they fetch over Rs10 per kg after sustaining heavy transportation cost, rising fertiliser prices and labor charges. The wholesale rate of Rs2-2.50 per kg is actually the transportation cost from the field to the market.”He said last year’s high and reasonable prices had encouraged the growers in Sindh to opt for tomato on a large scale. As a result tomato production in areas like Badin, Chach Jan Khan, Sakro, Thatta, Broser Colony, Gujjo etc., had recorded a bumper crop.

The end result has been pathetic for the growers due to massive decline in prices because of oversupply situation. In many producing areas, growers had either not picked up the finished product for onward sales or they had run tractors in the ready crop, he added.

“This situation has discouraged growers to refrain from producing tomatoes next year,” he said.

The cost of 14-15 kg wooden box (peti) is Rs42 from production area to Karachi wholesale market and from Sindh producing areas to Punjab market the peti cost is Rs90. Tomatoes in wholesale are priced at Rs30-50 per peti depending on the quality as compared to Rs500-600 few months back.

Usually tomato crop in Sindh area remain in supply for six months starting from October/ November to March/April. NWFP crop arrives in June 15 and remains till July 15 followed by Punjab crop from May 15 to June 15 and Balochistan crop from August 1 to October.

Abdul Waheed said that tomato was available in Punjab at Rs10 per kg. Currently, Sindh tomato was finding its way into Punjab. “We pay Rs30,000 as transportation cost to Lahore from Sindh for a truck carrying 600 peti of 14-15 kg each,” he added.

Chairman and President Falahi Anjuman Wholesale Vegetable Market Mian Mohammad Younus and Haji Shahjehan said that tomato was not being exported due to government’s lack of planning and policy. “When tomato is imported from the neighboring country, the government puts the entire onus on the growers’ apathy and now the growers need markets to sell off their surplus produce the government has no plans.”

“We can sell our tomatoes to Iran and India but there is no official support of the government to encourage its exports,” they said. At least if three to four big factories of tomato ketchup manufacturing are set up in interior Sindh alone it can help lifting in bulk quantities in advance in crisis situation or in normal production.

They urged the government to rescue the tomato growers by coming out with some crop insurance plan in order to avoid huge losses to growers in future.

The manufacturers of tomato ketchup offer no mercy for the consumers when the commodity prices have plunged sharply. Instead many of them have started lifting tomato at throwaway prices for storage purposes from the markets for next eight to 10 months’ production in order to earn handsome profits for the whole year.