This is an increase of 9% in the cost of vegetarian thali in November 2023 compared to the same period last year. Prices of pulses which account for around 9% of the total cost of veg thali, also increased 21% year-on-year.
There was an increase of 58% and 35% in prices of onions and tomatoes respectively in November over October, prompted by festive demand and lower output in Kharif season due to erratic rainfall conditions, the report said.
There was a decline of 1-3% in prices of broiler chicken, which accounts for around 50% of the cost of non-veg thali.
A steep rise in prices of food essentials – wheat, rice, pulses, sugar, onions – in India in the past few months is a major concern for the union government which will face voters in the general elections in April-May 2024.
Driven by uneven and scanty rain, annual retail inflation was at a 15-month high of 7.44% in July and food price inflation rose to 11.5% in the same month, its highest in more than three and a half years.Despite the government’s efforts to put a lid on food prices – prohibiting the export of wheat, restricting the export of sugar, onion and rice, importing pulses, disposing off wheat, rice, and vegetables such as onions from its own stocks – food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the overall consumer price basket, was 6.61% in October.Retail inflation in pulses accelerated to 18.79% in October, mainly due to a sharp spike in the prices of tur (40.94%), gram (11.16%), and moong (12.75%). The rate of inflation in tur was higher than 37.3% in September. This is despite the government’s effort to increase imports from Africa and Myanmar by scrapping the import duty on tur in March.
There has been damage to the onion crop in places such as Nashik and Ahmednagar due to the recent hailstorms in Maharashtra in the last few weeks.
The arrivals (of onions to mandis), which should have peaked at this time of the year, have declined. This is pushing the prices up.
The delay in kharif onion sowing due to unfavourable weather has resulted in less coverage and the late arrival of the onion crop. With stored rabi onions (harvested in April-May) getting exhausted and delay in the arrival of kharif onion, there is a tight supply situation, resulting in the price increase.
