Farmers in western China dump tomatoes as increased harvests cause prices to plummet

Farmers in Western China are dumping tomatoes in ditches due to a surplus on the market this year, a mainland news agency reported.

The wholesale price of tomatoes this year plummeted to 0.2 to 0.4 yuan per kilogram, from between 2 and 3 yuan last year, with many farmers in Ningxia province unable to find buyers for their harvest, Xinhua news agency reported.

An increase in cultivated areas in many parts in China, including Ningxia, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia, caused the glut of tomatoes on the market this year, according to Yang Xuebin, vice-director of the agriculture technology and popularization centre in Lingwu.

The surplus was compounded by heavy rainstorms in southern China that hampered transportation networks, Yang said.