Farmers count loses as tomato price crashes

After months of acute scarcity and high prices of fresh tomato reportedly caused by the disease, Tuta Absoluta (tomato ebola), which ravaged many farms in Nigeria especially in the North, reports from various locations across the country indicate that the prices have now crashed. While some people attributed the fall in price to low demand […]

After months of acute scarcity and high prices of fresh tomato reportedly caused by the disease, Tuta Absoluta (tomato ebola), which ravaged many farms in Nigeria especially in the North, reports from various locations across the country indicate that the prices have now crashed.
While some people attributed the fall in price to low demand for fresh tomato as buyers have shifted to the processed variety, others maintained that the supply improved as a result of reduced pest attack on tomato farms and good rainy season harvest.
A tomato farmer and dealer from Jos in Plateau State, Mr. Paul Ajijelek, who said the farmers were losing a lot as a result of the price crash, told our reporter that a 20kg basket of tomato, which previously sold at N4,000 now sells for N1,000, while a 120kg basket that sold before at N24,000 now goes for N6,000.
“Tomato farmers are losing. You know, tomato is usually scarce during the rainy season, but some farmers still have good harvest. I think the fall in price is because buyers have now resorted to dried tomato and tomato pastes,” he said.
Mrs. Mary Idoko, a tomato seller in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, said a big basket of tomato that sold at about N25,000 few months ago, now sells for about N6,000.
She maintained that the price came down due to increase in supply and low demand for fresh tomato by buyers.
In Kaduna State, our correspondent who visited the Bakin Dogo market popularly called Tomato market gathered that a basket of tomato which was sold at N40,000 two months ago now sells for N2,500 to N4,000.
A tomato seller, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, said continued the continued in the prices of the produce is very discouraging, adding but “I have been in this business for the past 10 years and I have learnt that sometimes I gain and sometimes I lose just like in any other business.”
In Benin, Edo State, in the recent past, a big basket of tomato costs between N40,000 and N45,000, but now it costs between N8,000 and N12,000.
A small basket before costs between N8,000 and N10,000 but now it goes for between N2,000 and N2,200 depending on the area.
Umar Sani, a tomato seller in Funtua, Katsina State told Daily Trust: “Pests attack irrigation farms more than the rainy season ones  that is why we have more supply of fresh tomato now. Rainfall naturally subdues pests that disturb tomato even though it destroys the tomato fruits.”
He said the big basket of the produce that cost up to N20,000 in the last five months is now only N2,400.
In Sokoto, the price of tomato has crashed with the big basket now sold between N3,500 and N5,00O from between N25,000 and N30,000 recently. The small basket of tomato has dropped from N12,000 to N1,500.
Despite the shortage of tomato presently experienced in Kano State, its prices still remains at a virtually fixed rate in most of the state’s perishable produce markets.
It was gathered that, tomato farmers in the state normally don’t farm tomato during the rainy season due to climatic hindrances and therefore its a tradition in the state to experience shortage of the commodity during such season.
In the FCT, the price of the commodity has also fallen sharply in most markets. At Utako Market, a big basket is sold for N8,000 as against N35,000 sold recently.