Tomato sales skyrocket on ONDC with 22,500 orders a month
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has seen tremendous success, selling over 45,000kg of tomatoes within a month since introducing discounted prices. Every day at 9:00am, tomatoes become available on the platform and sell out within minutes. Initially, ONDC sold 2,000kg per day, but as demand surged, sales increased rapidly. To date, the platform has facilitated approximately 22,500 orders for 45,000kg of tomatoes in the Delhi-NCR region.
Limiting bulk purchases has ensured adequate supply
To prevent wholesalers from taking advantage of the platform, ONDC limits tomato purchases to 2kg per person with one identification (ID). While some individuals may use multiple family members' IDs to buy more, bulk purchases are effectively limited. ONDC and the National Cooperative Consumer Federation (NCCF) have partnered to offer these competitive prices online, but the duration of this initiative remains uncertain.
NCCF and NAFED have joined hands to tackle soaring prices
NCCF and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) initially set retail tomato prices at Rs. 90/kg. These prices were reduced to Rs. 50/kg on August 15 and further to Rs. 40/kg on August 20. The agencies began retail sales in Delhi-NCR on July 14 when tomato prices soared to over Rs. 250/kg. Since then, they have procured more than 15 lakh kg of tomatoes and continue selling them to retail consumers in major consumption centers across India.
