Tomatoes to be sold at Rs 70 per kg in Delhi on ONDC, Retail News, ET Retail

After burgers, the government-backed platform Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is crushing on tomatoes now. The ONDC will sell the most coveted food item in the country currently – the humble tomato – for Rs. 70 a kg.

Tomatoes will be sold by the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) for the next 10-15 days, ONDC managing director and CEO T Koshy said in the national capital on Friday. ONDC is a “socially conscious organisation” he said adding that the move will provide publicity for the platform which is trying to roll-out nationally after several pilots in cities across the country.

“From tomorrow, you will get them at Rs 70 on our ONDC network,” he said. Orders will be limited to 2 kg per person, will be delivered the next day and will be limited to Delhi.

This comes after a major blitzkrieg by ONDC earlier this year where its partners incentivised food orders through the platform and users from Zomato and Swiggy flogged to it to get cheaper burgers and other food items.

The NCCF has become a seller app on the ONDC and will make the tomatoes available at the subsidised rate through it, while they can be bought through buyer apps on the network such as Paytm and MagicPin. The delivery will be made by logistics services company Shadowfax.

While such service providers normally impose a certain percent charge, in the case of the subsidised tomatoes and for a temporary basis, a decision has been collectively taken not to do so as a part of working with the government.

“Only for the tomatoes, for the next 10-15 days, none of us are going to charge,” Koshy said.

ONDC and its partners will collectively bear the cost. “We are all collectively trying to look at this, find a mechanism to do this,” Koshy said.

In the wake of tomato prices spiking across the country over the past few weeks, the centre had asked the NCCF along with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) to slash prices to rs 70 per kg.

ET reported on July 6 that ONDC is expanding to five more cities which includes Mumbai, Delhi NCR (including Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad), Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata in a beta phase.

Along with Bengaluru and Meerut, which went Beta live in September 2022 and December 2022, respectively, the network is now accessible to buyers (consumers) and sellers in these additional five cities. Consumers will be able to purchase from the sellers on the ONDC network through four active buyer applications — Paytm, Mystore, Spice Money, and Magicpin.

Currently, the network has more than 40,000 sellers live in more than 200 cities, out of which more than 18,000 sellers operate from these five cities.

ONDC had its alpha rollout in April 2022 in five cities to test live transactions with a closed group of sellers and buyers while gradually expanding its footprint.