Tomatoes Finding New Markets in Dubai
Tomatoes brought by farmers to an open auction market at Narayangaon along the Pune-Nashik highway are finding new markets in Dubai. According to traders, this season at least one lakh tonne of tomatoes have been exported from Narayangaon alone to Dubai.
Traders come to this open auction which was started by some young agricultural graduates in the year 2005 as a model to break the hold of commission agents over farmers.
President of All-India Vegetable Growers Association and president of the Shivneri Group, Junnar Shriram Gadhave said Around 1,200 -1500 tonne of tomatoes are sold here every day, with the turnover touching `150 crore to `170 crore.
According to trader whose firm purchases over 5 trucks of tomatoes from the open auction on a daily basis, some 20 trucks (each truck contains 8-10 tonne of tomatoes) go to Jawaharlal Nehru Port every day and these tomatoes are then sent to Dubai.
The opening of the export market has revived the local markets as well. Farmers, otherwise, were getting very poor rates.
In the open auction, there are no agents or middlemen between the farmer and the buyer. Tomato is the only item sold in this manner and the farmers decide the price for their produce.
