Shruthi H., a homemaker from South Bengaluru, said her monthly grocery bill had ballooned by at least 20-25% over the last three months and this has affected the monthly budget. “We have to cut down on some non-essentials in the grocery list and also cut down our expenses elsewhere,” she said.
Many customers are cutting down many items of their monthly grocery bills, say multiple retailers in the city.
“I have a set of households to which I supply groceries every month. Many have begun to cut down on some items. One of the main drivers of the rally in food prices is rice, which most households cannot avoid,” said Rajashekhar, who runs a supermarket in Sahakar Nagar, North Bengaluru.
A kilo of Sona Masuri rice that was being sold in the range of ₹55 to ₹60 at the beginning of the year has now shot up to ₹78. A kilo of Rajamudi rice has crossed the ₹100 per kilo mark.
Cereals and pulses
The prices of most other cereals and pulses have also seen a sharp spike. Naturally, the prices of derivative products like flattened rice (avalakki) and ravas have also shot up.
Owing to a fresh harvest of tur crop in the Kalaburagi region in December 2023, the prices of tur dal that had crossed the ₹200 mark has come down despite the harvest being almost less than half of a normal year, sources said.
The only other food items whose prices have come down are edible oils. Shailesh Ladhad, a leading oil merchant in the city, said that the edible oils market had stabilised after the initial disturbance of the Ukraine war and prices had come down due to a combination of factors in the international market, including currency fluctuations.
Despite paucity of groundnuts and its price being stable at a high ₹200 per kg for several months now, the price of groundnut oil has also come down.
Drought impact
Foodgrain merchant and president of Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) Ramesh Chandra Lahoti said there was no good crop anywhere in Karnataka or elsewhere in India.
“It is essentially the failed monsoon in 2023 and the resultant drought that is driving food prices upwards. For instance, there is no water even for the standing crop of paddy. Drinking water needs have to obviously be prioritised,” he said, cautioning consumers that they have to bear with high food prices till after this monsoon, when new crops start coming in by September.
Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda has recently announced that 223 of 240 taluks in the State have been declared drought affected. The State government has also told farmers that drinking water needs will be prioritised and no water will be released for irrigation, especially in the Cauvery basin. An exception to this was made to save the standing chilli crop in North Karnataka and 2.75 tmcft of water was released from Krishna reservoirs.
Sources in the Bangalore Wholesale Food Grains and Pulses Merchants’ Association predict the prices are set to go up further as the summer heats up. “The next crop is only expected after monsoon this year. As we use up the stocks we have, the prices are only likely to rise. We foresee a hike of at least ₹4-₹5 per kg in pulses and around ₹2-₹3 in cereals every month,” a trader said.
