Tomato prices in India have surged by over 300% recently thanks to very high rainfall and flooding destroying crops in parts of rural India.
As a result, the price of tomatoes has sky rocketed from their usual 40-50 rupees per Kilo to almost 200 Rupees per Kilo.
Masala Essential...
Think of food in India and you think of curry, and tomatoes a crucial ingredient in so many curry dishes. Granted, not all of them, but Chicken Jalfrezi, Lamb Madras, I mean I could go on.... it's at least one of the most common sauce ingredients.
So this hike in tomato prices, this means the cost of any dish which requires tomatoes has increased drastically, just on the basis of this one crucial ingredient!
Prices are so high that McDonalds is taking some dishes which require Tomatoes Off the Menu.
Meanwhile back in May....
The crazy thing about this price hike and the shutting down of selected tomato related dishes is that back in May the market price of tomatoes slumped to 2-3 cents per Kilo in some parts of India, far less than the production costs of said tomatoes.
This was because of a glut at that time.
Some farmers even dumped their crops in protest rather than sell them for such insultingly low prices.
Whither bottling or canning...
Now I'm sure those tomatoes above were of high enough quality to be used fresh, but come on, they could have been made into sauce back in May and then at least we'd have MORE tomatoes on the shelves today albeit in bottled or canned form.
Of course I'm sure the dumping is more ritual than truly on mass, but even so, having actually used them back then would have helped.
Crazy Climate, Crazy Prices...
I'm kind of lost for words on this: err don't waste food: you never know what crazy climate changes are just around the corner... If you get a glut, pay people for it, use the product, you never know if literally in two months time climatic conditions come back the other way!
BONKERS!