Heavy rains triple prices: Kenyans abandon tomatoes

A growing number of Kenyan families have cut the use of tomatoes or abandoned the produce altogether as retail prices have tripled due to heavy rains. The commodity has become scarce in most markets and prices increased sharply in the last two weeks.

A survey from last Friday shows vegetable marketers in Nairobi and its suburbs selling (large) single tomatoes for up to $0.15, an all-time high from $0.05 in January. Three small tomatoes are being sold at $0.20 while a medium-sized tomato is going at $0.10.

A large box of tomatoes, which most vegetable traders buy at wholesale price before going to retail in residential areas, currently costs $75, up from $70 in mid-April and $35 in January.

“Tomatoes have become hard to come by because of the heavy rains. They are the new gold,” said a vegetable seller from the east side of Nairobi last Friday. However, even as traders fight for the commodity, she noted that the quality is not that good, especially regarding those fruits grown in open fields.

Bernard Moina, an agricultural officer in Western Kenya, noted that rains have disrupted the supply of tomatoes in three ways. Firstly, they have made roads to farms impassable, making it difficult for the produce to reach market. Secondly, floods have destroyed the crop (and others like melons) on the farms, especially in areas at the Coast and in the Rift Valley. And lastly, the rainy season brings a myriad of diseases that include tomato blight and bacterial wilt which affect the crop.

Source: newsghana.com.gh