MUMBAI: It's only ironic to say that a few months ago during summer farmers were dumping their tomatoes on the road claiming that they were not even getting prices to cover their input cost, however, the same red vegetable has now turned so expensive it's almost out of affordable reach of middle-class people around the country.

There are a hundred reasons that traders are giving, however, the end consumers who have to pay prices of Rs 200 to 300 for a kilo of tomato and ginger, the most used cooking essentials in Indian homes is not chilly or pepper that is bringing tears into their eyes. Although the prices of chilly and other vegetables have also skyrocketed, however, tomatoes and ginger are used more compared to chillies.  

In recent weeks the prices of tomato and ginger have skyrocketed and since the last fortnight or so the prices of tomato have shot up from Rs 50 to Rs 60 per kg to cross Rs 160 per kilo, while the princes of ginger have shot up from Rs 100 up to Rs 300 a kilo. 

Retail buyers at the busy Dadar vegetable market were sulking at the high prices, a middle-class lady was seen haggling with a trader saying that such high prices were simply being inflated by them to make a profit on their cost. The wholesale seller however had no answer than to say that there was a very low supply and even he had paid a very high cost for whatever supply he has bought. He said that people who usually bought up to 2 or even 2.5 kilos for about Rs 100 were now forced to buy only about half of that quantity.

Traders in the wholesale market in Navi Mumbai said that there were several factors that have contributed to these high prices, the main being the recent unseasonal rains that have affected the tomato crop coming in from the northern states. 

Janardan a trader at the wholesale market in the agriculture produce marketing committee said that the unseasonal rains have also spoiled the crops of tomatoes and thus there was a heavy production shortage, and whatever supply was now coming into the market is being bought in from Karnataka, however the quality of Karnataka tomato's were not satisfactory.

He, however, said that high prices of ginger were not totally justified and it appeared to him that since the commodity was not immediately prone to perish in a few days or rot unlike other vegetables like tomatoes, farmers were perhaps holding back their crop and allowing the prices to surge to recover the losses they had faced last year.

The biggest sector that has been hit by soaring prices of tomatoes, ginger, chillies and several other vegetables is the hotel and catering industry and at many outlets, tomatoes are out of the menu. As a matter of fact, leading MNC fast food chain MacDonalds has openly informed their customers that tomatoes could be out of their burgers. 

One such notice by the said food chain is viral on the internet and social media, where the management of Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt Ltd of MacDonalds have put up a notice saying 'Temporary unavailability of Tomatoes' and people are simply not able to digest this.