Veg thali prices rise by 7%, non-veg down by 7%: Report

THE ON-YEAR cost of a representative, home-cooked vegetarian thali rose by 7 per cent and nonvegetarian thali declined by 7 per cent in March 2024, CRISIL MI&A Research said.

The cost of the veg thali increased due to a surge of 40 per cent, 36 per cent and 22 per cent on-year in prices of onion, tomato and potato, respectively, due to lower arrivals of onion and potato and low base of last fiscal for tomatoes, Crisil said.

Amid lower arrivals, prices of rice (accounting for 13 per cent of the veg thali cost) and pulses (9 per cent) increased 14 per cent and 22 per cent on-year, respectively, it said. The decrease in the cost of the non-veg thali was due to16percenton-yearfallinbroiler prices on a high base of last fiscal, Crisil said. On-month, however, the cost of the veg thali declined 1 per cent and non-veg thali rose 2 per cent. The cost of the veg thali easedduetoadeclineof2percent on-monthinpricesoftomato(accounting for 9 per cent of the veg thali cost), while prices of onion and rice remained flat, Crisil said.

In contrast, potato prices rose 6 per cent on-month due to crop damage, preventing further decline in thali cost. The cost of the non-veg thali rose due to an estimated 5 per cent increase in broiler prices (accounting for 50 per cent of the cost) due to higher demand amid Ramadan coupled with rising feed cost, according to Crisil. Pushan Sharma, Directorresearch, CRISIL Market Intelligence and Analytics, said, “For the past five months, there has been a divergence in the cost of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food plates.veg plate has become expensive on-year ...”

“The divergence is because broiler chicken prices have fallen owingtoexcesssupply.goingforward, we expect wheat prices to decline with fresh harvest arriving in the market and tomato prices to stay benign, but onion prices could see some near-term firming up because rabi harvest is seen 20 per cent lower,” he said.

On-month, however, the cost of veg thali declined 1%, non-veg thali rose 2%