An image of a truck dumping fresh tomatoes onto an empty field has been shared thousands of times in multiple Sinhala-language Facebook posts which suggest it shows a scene in Sri Lanka. The posts claim it illustrates the government’s failure to help farmers to sell their produce during a coronavirus lockdown.
"The posts Sinhala-language caption translates to English as: “Incompetence of rulers. Rulers familiar only with thieving, have forgotten our innocent farmers”.", The text overlay in the image reads: “Unable to make the tomatoes into sauce”., The claim circulated online following\xa0reports that Sri Lanka\xa0farmers were facing difficult circumstances\xa0during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Here is a report about the issue published by Sri Lankan news organisation News First on April 11, 2020., The image was also shared with a similar claim\xa0on Facebook here, here, here, here and here., The claim is misleading; the image was published in 2017 news reports about\xa0Australia’s food wastage., A reverse image search of the photo in the misleading posts on Google found\xa0this report published by UK newspaper The Guardian on October 13, 2017, alongside the title “Almost 90% of edible tomatoes thrown away based on appearance - research”., "The images caption states: “Rejected tomatoes being dumped in a Bundaberg field. Photograph: University of Sunshine Coast”.", The university is located on the Sunshine Coast in the Australian state of Queensland., Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading posts (L) and the photo published in The Guardian article (R):, The photo can also be seen in this corresponding study published by the University of the Sunshine Coast on its website on October 11, 2017., , , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
This 2017 photo shows food waste in Australia -- it is unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic | AFP Fact Check