Bhubaneswar: Tomatoes have gone off the menu in middle-class families after its price touched Rs 100 per kg in Odisha market.
An overnight doubling of price of the essential vegetable in every kitchen has taken consumers by surprise. The price of tomato has skyrocketed from Rs 50 to Rs 100 a kg in less than a week.
Tomato which was available at Rs 50/60 a kg till the end of September, started showing upward trend from the first week of October and increased to Rs 100 within five days.
Traders in Unit – I vegetable Market have attributed the sudden surge in the price to low production and non-availability in source markets. The supply has become scarce and unable to meet the high demand in the state prompting to skyrocketing price, said a trader.
Similar is the situation at Aiginia, another wholesale vegetable market of the capital city Bhubaneswar and major markets of the state.
Not only tomato but prices of most green vegetables now cost above Rs 80 per kg in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, expect papaya and pumkin.
