COIMBATORE: The Domestic and Export Market Intelligence Cell (DEMIC) of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has predicted that the price of tomato will rise in May.

It has requested farmers to sell through shandies in order to get the maximum price for their produce.

Bulk purchase

Besides this, the market intelligence cell has also urged the local processors to make use of the price situation and go in for bulk purchase and value addition purposes.

A press release issued by the university said an increase of Rs. 4 to Rs. 5 a kg was likely during May for farmers who were selling their vegetables through commission agents, while an additional Re. 1 could be expected for those who opted to take the step of selling through farmers' shandies that were located in Coimbatore.

Maximum

In Ottanchatram, which was a major farmers' market in the State, the price was expected to increase to a maximum of Rs. 8 a kg.

Tomato currently occupies the second place amongst vegetable crops in terms of production in the country.

At present, Tamil Nadu stands seventh in production of tomato among the States in the country.

Coimbatore is the second largest district in tomato acreage and production.

Price

The escalating price of tomato in the past year motivated the market intelligence cell to do a study on the present price structure.

The data of the last five years was collected from the `Uzhavar Santhai' at R.S. Puram for analysis.

Analysis

The analysis that was carried out by the team helped them to arrive at the forecast.

It also revealed that Coimbatore markets traded mostly in hybrid tomatoes.

Hybrid tomatoes are preferred for their easy availability, longer shelf life, lesser price and lesser sourness than country tomatoes.

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