MCDONALD’S has made a major change to its menu after dropping a popular item from meals in India.
Fans of the fast-food chain were left stunned after the restaurant removed tomatoes from their burgers and wraps in many parts of the country.
ReutersTomato prices have soared in India causing McDonald’s to scrap items containing it[/caption]
The move came after Maccies was hit by supply shortages and quality concerns after prices of the vegetable soared to records.
The costly tomato has wreaked havoc on wallets, in kitchens and even on the streets.
In some regions, wholesale prices of the staple of traditional Indian cuisine have surged 288% in a month to a high of 140 rupees (£1.33) a kilo on Friday.
And with retail prices soaring even higher, many have been spurred to cut back on consumption of the popular vegetable.
The government blames the higher prices of tomatoes on a lean production season when monsoon rains disrupt transport and distribution.
“Despite our best efforts, we are not able to get adequate quantities of tomatoes which pass our stringent quality checks,” read notices posted in two McDonald’s stores in New Delhi.
“We are forced to serve you products without tomatoes.”
Store managers said the problem was due to quality issues in the supply chain, rather than pricing.
Connaught Plaza Restaurants, which runs about 150 outlets as McDonald’s franchise in India‘s north and east, attributed the decision to “temporary” seasonal issues.
However, Westlife Foodworld, the McDonald’s franchise for India’s western and southern regions, with 357 restaurants, said there were “no serious tomato-related issues”.
The problem was seasonal and forced 10 to 15 per cent of its stores to stop serving tomatoes temporarily, it said.
However, McDonald’s Delhi stores still offer sachets of tomato ketchup.
And a nearby Subway restaurant said there were no issues serving tomatoes.
Arvind Malik, a tomato farmer from Haryana state, told the Guardian that while he usually sold 30,000kg of tomatoes every year, this year he could only harvest half of that as his crops had been destroyed by pests.
“Experts told us that irregular weather – sudden rise and decline in temperatures – is the reason behind the diseases in our tomatoes,” he said.
In the financial capital of Mumbai, vegetable vendor Vijay Sharma said sales had fallen off from the 40kg he used to peddle each day.
Mr Sharma said: “Most of my customers have stopped buying tomatoes. Now, I only bring five kilos.”
The skyrocketing prices have been particularly hard on India’s middle and lower classes, who make up the bulk of the population.
In the western city of Pune, a vegetable seller allegedly smacked a customer in the face with a weighing scale for bickering over the price of 250g of tomatoes.
There have also been reports of people stealing tomatoes from fields and hijacking tomato-laden trucks.
It comes after consumers have battled higher prices of items ranging from milk to spices in recent months.
