Tomato prices have been on the rise for past several weeks across the country
National Cooperative Consumers' Federation (NCCF) will reportedly sell tomatoes at a subsidised rate of Rs 70 per kilogram on Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform. Moneycontrol reported that the service will be available on ONDC platform for at least 10 days in Delhi, starting from tomorrow. According to the report, no delivery cost will be charged on these orders.
Earlier in the day, several reports had indicated that the government’s agricultural marketing agencies, NCCF and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), are in talks with ONDC for this arrangement. Tomato prices shot up across the country in the last few weeks.
On Wednesday, the government had said that its agencies NCCF and NAFED will sell tomatoes at Rs 70 per kg, reducing the price from the earlier subsidised rate of Rs 80. In its release, the government had said, “Till 18th July, 2023 a total of 391 MT of tomato had been procured by the two agencies which are being continuously disposed of to the retail consumers in major consumption centres of Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, UP and Bihar.”
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Several factors like unseasonal rains, pest attacks, etc. led to issues in production of tomatoes, a popular ingredient in Indian dishes. Complaints about the prices of tomato, with some places reporting Rs 200 per kg rate, led to government’s intervention in managing the high inflation.
The recent move to sell on ONDC is also the part of drive to provide respite to the consumers. For the unversed, ONDC’s platform had went viral few months ago for its food delivery services.