India to import tomatoes from Nepal amid surge in price, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that India will be importing tomatoes from Nepal, amid a record high surge in prices in the country. During her speech in Parliament, Sitharaman informed that the first lot of imports are likely to reach in Varanasi, Lucknow and Kanpur cities in northern India by Friday. Tomato prices have surged more than 1,400 per cent at the wholesale market to a record 140 rupees ($1.69) per kg in the past three months, with farmers citing reasons including poor rainfall, higher temperatures and a virus outbreak that have hit the crop, as per a Reuters report. RBI governor Shaktikanta Das also said that a spike in tomato prices and rise in cereal, pulses contributed to inflation, while announcing key decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. He further stated that the vegetable prices may see a significant correction. The tomato prices witnessed a significant surge in June and July leading to high inflation. Vegetable ...