The prices for English tomatoes in the city’s main markets have dropped significantly over the past two weeks following increased supplies by local farmers
Stabroek News visited the Bourda and Stabroek markets this week to get a sense of the direction in which prices for tomatoes are moving and it was observed they have dropped quite a bit over the past fortnight.
Tricia, a vendor at the Stabroek market told Stabroek News that the demand for the English tomatoes is high as she had 80 pounds of tomatoes that day and was left with only 15 pounds to sell.
“Farmers are reaping a lot of English tomatoes, and they are selling it out at a cheaper price.” Tricia opined that over the next two weeks again, prices will go back up, as she thinks the rain will come and knock the blossoms off the plants. She however noted that Plum tomatoes have gone scarce on the market since persons are not importing it from Brazil in the same quantity as before. She said too that English tomato prices have gradually dropped in the market for the past weeks. It was sold for $500, then $400, then $360 per pound before last Monday. The vendor says she now buys English tomatoes from a wholesaler at $100 per lb and sells for $160 per pound.
Meanwhile, a Bourda market vendor who preferred not to be named explained to Stabroek News that as one who usually sells Plum and Mongol tomatoes, she has restarted selling the English variety since everyone who has planted is now reaping at the same time and so it’s coming into the market bountifully. She said that she still sells Mongol tomatoes as farmers are reaping that in large quantities too. The vendor however noted that since the English tomatoes are plentiful in the market, the Mongol tomato prices have also dropped sharply.
Before the significant drop in tomato prices, it was selling at $600 per lb and that price kept fluctuating ($700, $500, $400). She sells her tomatoes for $300 per lb as sometimes she buys them from the wholesaler for $200 or $240 per lb. She too felt that in the next two to three weeks the prices for tomatoes may rise again. The highest prices for tomatoes were thought to have been influenced by the demand from the oil and gas industry.
Another vendor outside Bourda market, Joey Gobden, who sells greens, told this newspaper that he sells Plum tomatoes for a man who bought them by the crate for $6,000 each from Brazil. He added that tomatoes got cheaper because “plenty coming from all over the country.” He added, “When tomatoes were selling for $400 per lb, barely one person coming, and buying, now tomatoes are selling for two lbs for $300 since last week, and everybody coming and buying.” He continues to sell crate after crate since the Plum tomatoes are plenty, “as well as the English tomatoes that comes from Berbice.”
