Armed guards deployed to 'protect' tomatoes in India

Armed guards have been deployed across wholesale vegetable markets in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state to "protect" tomatoes, prices of which had escalated almost five-fold in recent weeks.

Equipped with blunderbuss-like shotguns, these guards have been installed at Indore’s main vegetable market, 120 miles from the state capital Bhopal, to ensure that tomatoes costing Rs 100 (1.19 Pounds) per kg are not looted.

Tomatoes constitute an essential ingredient in most Indian food, but have been in short supply across the country since late June due to heavy monsoon rains that had damaged the crop. 

Fierce downpours in major tomato producing states like Karnataka in southern India had also contributed to the shortages by disrupting their transportation to other parts of the country.

Santosh Narang, a wholesale tomato dealer in Indore’s Devi Holkar market said security of their tomato piles was of "paramount concern" after thieves looted 300kg of the fruit worth Rs 70,000 (833 Pounds), in Mumbai in mid-July. 

Indore has close trading and social links with Mumbai, 360 miles to the south, and is directly affected by events in the port city. 

After Mumbai’s tomato heist, Indore’s panicky vegetable wholesalers approached the authorities demanding security, especially when trucks carrying the valued vegetable were being unloaded. This was when the tomatoes were most vulnerable to looters.  

“The (six-odd armed) guards have been deployed after that request” market inspector Ramesh Sawadiya said. 

The spike in tomato prices, making front page newspaper and lead television news, is also worrying provincial governments, many of who had previously been voted out of office following a hike in vegetable prices.

Onions, also critical to Indian cooking, have played a seminal role in state and federal politics, after a rise in their cost in 2007 rattled the ruling Congress Party.

Earlier, in 1998 the Congress Party defeated the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in several state elections, after onion prices soared due to shortages triggered by the monsoon.

Ironically, a few months ago farmers across the country were dumping tomatoes on roadsides following a bumper crop that was selling for a pittance in the cities.