Climate change sinks India tomato supplies

NEW DELHI — As weather patterns grow erratic — rainfalls too heavy and often out of sync with farming calendars, and heat cycles beginning earlier and breaking records — food shortages are one of the many ways India is reeling from climate change.

Supplies have been shrinking, and prices shooting up — in the case of tomatoes, at least a fivefold increase between May and mid-July according to official figures, and even a steeper spike based on consumer accounts. The government has been forced to take emergency measures, curbing exports and injecting subsidized supplies to the market.

In recent weeks, families have been rationing their intake of tomatoes, which are fundamental to the Indian diet. Some, out of fear of even higher prices, have been stocking tomatoes as puree in their freezers. Restaurants have been removing tomato-heavy items from their menus or hiking the prices. McDonald’s dropped tomatoes from its burgers in large parts of north and eastern India.

“Earlier, we would consume about two or three kilos of tomatoes a week in our family of five,” said Neeta Agarwal, a software developer who was out shopping one recent evening in east Delhi. “Now we are only consuming half a kilo per week.”

In some areas, prices have skyrocketed from roughly 13 cents a pound to more than $2.44.

“We have stopped eating tomatoes in salad,” Agarwal added. “And we are not making any tomato-based vegetable dishes. We are only using tomatoes for little base sauce for lentils and curries.”

The tomato shortage, farmers and traders say, is a result of a supply and demand disruption in the market, followed by extreme weather events.

The previous tomato harvest was such a bumper crop that many farmers had no takers. Tomatoes rotted in fields, as the cheap prices in the market did not justify shipping costs.

That discouraged some farmers from growing tomatoes for the current harvest.

What would have been a smaller harvest was then made worse by extreme heat in March and April, followed by flooding in recent weeks that not only destroyed fields but also wiped away bridges and blocked roads in parts of north India.