This weekend, Nepali tomato farmers dumped truckloads of their produce on the road outside the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market to vent their anger at the low prices they were getting. Photos and videos of the mounds of red vegetables on the road in front of the country's largest produce market duly appeared on social media.
The tomato growers said they were forced to dump their produce because they were not able to get a fair price, and there was no way they could compete with Indian tomatoes flooding the market.
A few months ago too, farmers had unloaded piles of tomatoes and other vegetables on the road to pressure the government to stop vegetable imports from India. Experts say market price is not the problem. According to them, the problem is lack of cold stores to keep the tomatoes or factories to make ketchup and other products.
A week ago, the wholesale price of tomato big (Nepali) was Rs55 per kg and tomato big (Indian) was priced at Rs55 per kg. On Sunday, tomato big (Indian) was selling for Rs45 kg.
[ Rs100 = €0.70 ]
Source: kathmandupost.com
Photo source: Dreamstime.com
