New Delhi: Tomato prices are going through the roof in several regions across the country owing to the rising cost of fuel and unseasonal rainfall.
Typically in winters tomato prices remain at around Rs 20 a kilo, retail tomato prices have breached Rs 80 per kg in a lot of cities this time. Southern states are witnessing price hike due to heavy downpours in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
Rates have shot up to as high as Rs120 per kg in a few southern states because of widespread rains, according to government data.
It’s Chennai which is facing the worst shortage where the vegetable is selling for Rs140 a kilo.
In Kerala, tomatoes are being sold for anywhere between Rs 90 per kilo to Rs 120 per kilo, while customers in the National Capital Region have to shell out anywhere between Rs 90 to Rs 108 for a kilo of tomatoes, according to news agency PTI.
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Netizens have taken to social media sharing concerns over the steep rise through jokes making a dent in the budget of consumers. In fact, meme-makers have gone into overdrive on the micro-blogging site Twitter, where hashtag #tomato has been trending high since Wednesday.
Online food delivery platform Zomato also joined the meme fest asking people to not mix up its name with the red fruit. In a hilarious tweet, the delivery app added a punch to the trend pointing at the Zomato-tomato jumble saying, “Guys, it’s ‘tomato’ whose prices are rising, please don’t write 1-star reviews for us.”
One of the users, who got confused initially about the price rise said, “I saw the prices are rising and were about to sell Zomato shares but when reading it again it was Tomato so stopped myself.”
Several others on Twitter responded to Zomato's humble ‘plea’ where it joked asking users not to write 1-star reviews.
Here's a look at other memes trending