Tomato pricey at Vellore co-op store as loads head to Chennai

VELLORE: With all available tomato loads being diverted to Chennai for sale through PDS shops at affordable rates announced by government, Vellore residents are forced to rely on the lone ‘Pannai Pasumai Nugarvore Angadi’ at Gandhinagar in Katpadi.

Sources said that the cooperative department officials procured tomato loads from Madanapalli in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to be sent to ration shops in Chennai.

“Hence, due to non-availability of adequate loads of tomato and at lesser rates no cooperative outlet in Vellore and its surrounding areas are able to sell at the price announced by the State government,” a cooperative department official said.

The lone ‘Angadi’ at Gandhinagar in the Katpadi area also procured around 50 kg daily at a cost Rs 90 per kg from a source in Andhra Pradesh and sells the fruit at the same rate on a no-loss-no-gain basis. “The trader from Andhra is supplying the 50 kg load mainly because of the long association with us,” an official said. Another official said that tomatoes sources from across the border were being sold for Rs 100 per kg in the nearby uzhavar sandhai.

However, private shops in Vellore complained that even regular customers were unwilling to purchase on kilogram basis and just restrict themselves to 250 grams.

“The situation is so critical that half-a-kg purchases have become rarity,” said a person running a private shop.

However, the price of tomatoes in the Vellore market was around Rs 130 per kg on Thursday. It may be recalled that a few days ago, a trader from Andhra Pradesh who brought a van load of tomatoes for sale in Gudiyattam town found that his load vanished within two hours when he sold them for Rs 50 per kg.

In Vellore too, farmers who a few days ago directly sold tomatoes to the public from their minivans at Rs 100 for 4 kgs in many locations in Sathuvachari were now missing.