Buying grocery products such as vegetables and edible oil has started to cost an arm and a leg to many Indians.
A survey by LocalCircles found that around 24 percent of Indian households who took part in the survey said that the rising retail prices of edible oils forced them to reduce their demand. At the same time, 29 percent said they switched to edible oils available at comparatively low-priced options.
The survey was conducted between March 23 to April 7, 2022.
LocalCircles interviewed 36,000 consumers from 359 districts of India, reported Business Standard.
To counter the impact of heavy-priced edible oil on bills, 67 percent of respondents said they have reduced or lowered their expenditure on other areas.
While 50 percent of households kept their consumption levels the same as before, they were shelling out more money every month from their savings.
Almost 63 percent of participants in the survey were men, while 37 percent were women.
“On an aggregate basis, the findings suggest that as edible oil prices have risen, 24% of Indian households have cut consumption, while 67% were paying more for it by reducing spending and savings. This question in the survey received 12,527 responses,” LocalCircles said.
Geopolitical Tension & Edible Oil
Edible oil prices of all varieties have seen a spike in the last month, thanks to Putin’s steadfastness toward the Ukraine Invasion. Notably, Indian used to satisfy more than 80% of its sunflower oil demand from the war-stricken Ukraine and Russia.
Overall, India imports 55-60 percent of edible oil to meet its demand. With the tension escalated in eastern Europe, Indians bore the brunt of disrupted supply chains and heavy international rates.
The survey showed that amongst the options available for edible oils, most Indian households prefer using sunflower, peanut, and mustard oil for cooking.
Exorbitant Vegetable Prices Are Impacting Menus
About nine out of every 10 Indian households are “feeling the pinch” of exorbitant prices of vegetables since March, a survey by LocalCircles revealed.
The result of the survey is derived from the answers given by 11,800 consumers residing across 311 districts in India. Around 87 percent of the respondents said they were “affected” by the spike in the rates of vegetables since March 2022. 37 percent of the respondents felt that they spent more than 25 percent on vegetables.
The findings by the LocalCircles report hint that prices of some vegetables shot up in the last month.
Thirty-six percent of the surveyed people said they were shelling out “10-25 percent more” money for the same quantity of vegetables than last month. 14 percent of the total respondents were paying “0-10 percent” extra.
As many as 25 percent of the respondents answered that they were paying out “25-50 percent more” for the same quantity of vegetables compared with March. A small but significant five percent of people said they paid “50-100 percent” additional.
Seven percent of respondents said they were paying more than twice for the same quantity of vegetables.
Only 2 percent of the respondents claimed to be “actually paying less overall”.
4 percent of the respondents did not find any change in the prices of vegetables, while 7 percent of the people could not differentiate between the prices then and now.