“Tomato scarcity is nothing new, but it was made worse this year  by the invasion of the moth”.

The price of Tomato in the market has crashed from between N25,000 and N40,000 which it sold for in May to N800.

The crash signifies a 96.8% drop in market price of the essential cooking ingredient which had in the past months caused pain and anger for households due to its price which rose about 1000% above normal.

The scarcity of the crop was caused by incidence of tuta absoluta which is also known as ‘tomato ebola’.

The tuta absoluta plagued important cities in most part of the North-west including Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina and Kano states.

According to the chairman of the tomato sellers in Line Dogo (Rail Line) market, Kaduna, Abass Mai Tumatur, tomato is now available as he said “things are getting better”.

Mai Tumatur told TheCable: “Tomato scarcity is nothing new, but it was made worse this year  by the invasion of the moth”.

He further added while praising the government for its timely intervention: “The rains coupled with the efforts of government have helped tremendously in making tomato available,”