Consumers can place orders daily from 9.30am to 3.30pm for next day delivery
Post Date – 23rd Mon 24th Jul 06:51pm
New Delhi: The National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF), the government’s agricultural marketing company, started selling tomatoes at a subsidized price of Rs 70 per kg through the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) on Monday.
NCCF Managing Director Anice Joseph Chandra told ANI, “We have partnered with ONDC to sell tomatoes in the National Capital Region of Delhi.” ONDC, which was established on December 31, 2021, goes beyond the current platform-centric digital commerce model where buyers and sellers have to use the same platform or application to be digitally visible and conduct business transactions.
Consumers can place orders from 9.30am to 3.30pm daily for next-day delivery. Consumers will get home delivery at no extra cost, she said. Chandra said the tomatoes will first be available through ONDC-listed buyer apps such as Paytm, Magicpin, Mystore and Pincode. The interface is simple and user-friendly. Consumers can order tomatoes at Rs 70 per kg simply by using the apps. Each order is limited to 2kg. Currently, e-commerce companies are offering door-to-door delivery at around Rs 170-180 per kg.
Tomato prices have been reported to have increased significantly across the country and not just in a particular area or region. In major cities, the price is as high as Rs 150-200 per kg.
To further ease the burden on consumers, the central government said last Wednesday that it had directed its marketing agencies NAFED and NCCF to sell tomatoes at Rs 70 per kg instead of Rs 80 per kg.
Tomatoes procured by the National Federation of Consumer Cooperatives (NCCF) and the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Marketing (NAFED) initially retailed at Rs 90 per kg, which was later reduced to Rs 80 per kg from July 16, 2023, to Rs 70 currently.
Amid the sharp increase in tomato prices across the country, agencies such as NCCF and NAFED have started sourcing tomatoes from Mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for simultaneous disposal in major consumption centers where retail prices have recorded the largest increase in the past month.
The government attributed the price increase to the monsoon season, saying it exacerbated further challenges related to distribution and increased transport losses.
