Tomato producers in India's largest tomato belt say they will leave the current bumper crop hanging and not harvest due to low market prices.
Producers in Annamayya and Chittoor districts in India, who have about 20 000 hectares of tomato's planted, can not get good local market prices. Other states are also flooding markets, while they are unable to export tomato's, which caused the price drop. It is also unsustainable for them to pay workers, transport and other costs only to receive below cost prices.
Producers planted in the hopes of recovering following the Covid-19 pandemic losses in 2020 an 2021, but they now sit with the oversupply and bumper crops.