Tomatoes Are Becoming Too Expensive | The Hoot Hour - Ep. 7

Catch Newsahoot readers discussing current affairs in our exclusive series!

In this week’s Hoot Hour episode, our intelligent participants spoke about a very important and rather urgent topic of discussion - the rising prices of tomatoes! Later in the episode, our speakers also took part in an interesting activity to help them understand more about how the market works.

A warm thank you and congratulations to our participants for lending their time and thoughts to this discussion.
1. Aleana Ann Prince (Jesus' Sacred Heart School)
2. Gurmannat Kaur (Jesus' Sacred Heart School)
3. Fareeha Shaikh Mansoori (Gangotri Public School)
4. Aastha (Stepping Stones Sr. Secondary School)

The topic of this Hoot Hour was - What is Making Tomatoes So Expensive? There is a lot of chatter about how expensive tomatoes have gotten, expensive enough to make front-page news every day!

Tomatoes are essential to Indian cooking. Since their prices have shot up, people aren’t able to buy as many of them. Aleana attributed the price hike to the late monsoons in India. In comparison to the serious downpour we are having now, many parts of India saw a delay in monsoons this year.

Aleana said that this might have caused a delay in the production and sale of tomatoes as well. Now that the rains are here, the sale of tomatoes has gone up, and so have the prices!

Gurmannat added that pests have also infected the crop of tomatoes this year. The crop wasn’t stored properly, and pests may have eaten away at it, causing serious damage and a shortage of supply.

Aastha mentioned the Dalwai Committee recommendations. Through this committee and their recommendations, the government is tackling the high prices of tomatoes. Aastha also mentioned that this has also led Mcdonald's to cut out tomatoes in the burgers from their menus. Guramanat added that McDonald’s had done this previously in 2016 too!

Fareeha explained that when there is a shortage of an item, like tomatoes, their price seems to go up. The kids discussed how supply, demand, and production are all interrelated, and this is how we can predict when some items will become less or more expensive.

They played out similar scenarios with different items, such as limited-edition video games and sneakers advertised by a popular influencer. Many different factors can have an effect on the price of things. As smart consumers, we should know how the market works!

Hooked on the Hoot Hour? Keep checking the message board on the Newsahoot app for a chance to be a part of the next episode!