Supply Chain Analysis of Raw and Value-added Products of Tomatoes in Telangana

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely consumed vegetable crops and the second-largest cultivated vegetable crop in the world after potato. Tomato is one of the most important protective foods because of its special nutritive value. Tomatoes grown in the country are consumed fresh in raw or cooked form or processed into tomato paste, juice, sauce, ketchup, soup and, pickles. Less than one percent of India’s tomato production is processed. On the other hand, the demand in India for processed tomato products has been growing at an annual rate of about 30 per cent over the last few years. India is the World's largest producer of many fruits and vegetables but there still exists a huge gap between per capita demand and supply due to enormous wastage during post-harvest storage, handling, and the absence of an optimum supply chain. The price fluctuations in tomatoes are very high and often farmers are forced to sell at prices that will not cover even the labor cost of picking the tomatoes. A well-developed tomato processing industry will reduce wastages as well as secure better prices for tomatoes. The present study entitled “Supply chain analysis of raw and value-added products of tomatoes in Telangana” was intended to assess supply chain analysis for raw and processed tomato products along with the constraints faced by each stake holder in the supply chain. Vikarabad district was purposively selected for the study, two mandals four villages each were selected from each village, data was collected from 10 farmers. Hence the total data was collected from 80 farmers. The data was also collected from commission agents, wholesalers/ traders, and retailers. From the tomato processing firms operating in around Hyderabad, three firms were selected to collect data regarding their products and marketing supply chain. The collected data was analyzed. The results of the study identified three channels of raw tomato marketing, namely: channel-I Farmer- Commission Agent-Trader-Retailer-consumer, Channel-II Famer – Commission agent - Retailer-consumer and Channel-III Farmer- Retailer-consumer. Two channels of processed tomato products were identified, namely: Channel-I, Manufacturing unit- wholesalers-consumers and Channel-II, Manufacturing unit- consumers. The producer share in the consumer rupee was highest in the Channel -III because of lesser number intermediaries. The marketing efficiency is highest for the channel – III fallowed by channel – II and channel -I. In case of processed industries are mostly preferring channel -II. The major constraints to the farmers identified were high price fluctuations, high cost of fertilizers and pesticides. The major constraints to the intermediaries identified were high price fluctuations and transportation costs and problems. The major problems identified were lack of quality raw materials suitable for processing, and price fluctuations of raw materials for the processing units, while the major problems faced by wholesalers identified were timely availability and quality related issues.