Srinagar: After tomatoes, it is now tomato purees, which have gone off shelves in Kashmir.
Skyrocketing tomato price has forced consumers to try alternatives including tomato puree and ketchup. This has led to shortages of these products in the valley.
“Tomato purees are not available in the stores now. For the last few weeks, demand for the purees has been huge as consumers have been using tomato purees as an alternative to tomatoes,” said Owais Ahmad Rather, a wholesale dealer from Batamaloo.
He said the onset of the marriage season has caused a shortage of tomato purees and ketchup in the valley.
“Puree is an essential constituent of Kashmiri wazwan. Marriage season in Kashmir has begun and the stocks of purees have almost exhausted,” Rather said.
Currently, Kashmir like other regions is grappling with a severe shortage of tomatoes, leading to a hike of more than 100 percent in the price of this vegetable in the market.
In June, wholesale prices of tomatoes stood at Rs 30 per kilogram at the Parimpora vegetable market. By the first week of July, the price hiked to over Rs 100 per kilogram.
The vegetable is still being sold at Rs 100 per kilogram in the valley markets even as the local produce has reached the market.
Rather said the price of tomato puree has also hiked by more than 30 percent for the last two weeks.
“Whosoever has purees in the stock sells it at an exorbitant price. A half kilogram of tomato puree, which would cost Rs 33 is sold at Rs 43. The retailers as well as the wholesalers are waiting for the normalizing of the prices,” he said.
Riyaz Ahmad Sheikh another kiryana wholesaler dealer said the demand for tomato puree has witnessed a surge of almost 60 percent for the last two weeks.
“We would normally have counted a number of customers for tomato puree that too during marriage season. The demand during the current month has gone up by almost 60 percent. Even most of the wholesalers are short of stock,” he said.
Even tomato purees are not available on grocery apps. E-grocers such as BigBasket, Amazon, Flipkart, and Zepto showed ‘out-of-stock’ for puree packs sold by Dabur India Ltd., Hershey’s, and Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
