Cooperatives NCCF and NAFED will start selling tomatoes at a reduced rate of Rs 40 per kilogram from August 20 amid declining price of the kitchen staple in wholesale and retail markets.

Since last month, the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) have been selling tomatoes at a discounted rate on behalf of the Consumer Affairs Ministry to contain the price rise.

Initially, the subsidised rate was fixed at Rs 90 per kilogram which had been successively reduced in line with the decline in prices in order to ensure benefits to the consumers.

"The last downward revision of the retail price to Rs 50/- per kg was on August 15, which now stands further reduced to Rs 40 per kg w.e.f. August 20," an official statement said on Friday.

Till date, over 15 lakh kilogram of tomatoes have been procured by the two agencies and are being sold to retail consumers in major consumption centres in the country, it said.

These locations include Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan (Jaipur, Kota), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj) and Bihar (Patna, Muzaffarpur, Arrah, Buxar).

NCCF and NAFED are procuring tomatoes from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

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