ISLAMABAD: Tomato prices have not only increased in the markets but the availability of the main kitchen item has also become scarce, which is likely to push its value further during the current week.

Tomatoes in the mid-level localities of Rawalpindi were selling at around Rs120 per kilogramme whereas the pries were above Rs140 per kg in most of the markets in the federal capital.

The trend is also being witnessed across the country with traders saying the prices were hovering above Rs100 per kg even in Karachi and Lahore which are not only large markets but also close to the farming areas.

The rise in prices was due to the changing season that has created a sudden dearthofsupplies.

The farmers in the main tomato producing areas of Sindh seem to have taken a cautious approach in the wake of the losses faced by them last year due to rains.

Usually, the produce start coming from Mirpurkhan and Badin in March, which is the ebbing season for Thatta and Lasbela crops.

`Due to untimely rain in February last year, the crops suffered from various diseases in Sindh. As a result, the farmers delayed the crops this year,` Mohammad Hassan, a trader in Mirpurkhas wholesale fruit and vegetable market, told Dawn.

Currently, tomatoes are being supplied from Larkana which has overstretched the wholesalers of the country.

`At present, around 25 trucks are coming to Islamabad but the average supply of tomatoes to the city is around 50 trucks,` said Rizwan Farooq, a wholesaler at the I-11 fruit and vegetable market.

Because of the short supply, even the traders were competing to grab the tomato crates, pushing its rates to around Rs2,000, while the same crates of around 18 kilogrammes were around Rs1,000 more than a week earlier.

However, the traders at the wholesale market said the prices were likely to fall sharply from the coming week due to the rapid ripening of the vegetable.

`We will see fresh red tomatoes of central Punjab from mid-April,` said Haji Shahjehan, a wholesaler in the Karachi wholesale fruit and vegetable market.

But he added that there was a need to develop coordination between the Met Office and the farmers because if the temperature rises sharply in Sindh tomatoes would ripen too fast.

The usual tomato supply season is early summer from Sindh followed by some parts of Punjab. After the end of May up to July, the main supply of tomatoes is from various parts of Punjab and KP, including Hazara, whereas the Balochistan crop comes in August.