Onion, tomato prices drive Veg thalis cost 7% more

Mumbai: The prices of vegetables such as onion, tomato, and potato have caused a 7 per cent increase in vegetable thali in March, an analysis by Crisil Market Intelligence and Analysis said on Thursday, PTI reported.

Meanwhile, a drop in poultry prices caused a 7 per cent decline in non-vegetarian thali, the agency's monthly "Roti Rice Rate" report suggested.

The analysis said in March, the cost of a vegetable thali- which includes roti, vegetables (onions, tomatoes and potatoes), rice, dal, curd and salad- increased to Rs 27.3 per plate, which was Rs 25.5 in the same period a year back. However, in February, veg thali was costlier at Rs 27.4 a plate.

"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," the report said.

According to the report, lower arrivals kicked up the prices of rice by 14 per cent and pulses by 22 per cent compared to the same period last year.

But, in the case of non-veg thali, in which only daal gets replaced with chicken, the price went down more than Rs 4. When it was Rs 59.2, it reached Rs 54.9 in this March. But it was higher than that of Rs 54 per plate in February.

The report inferred that there was a 16 per cent decline in the cost of broilers. This could be the primary reason for the decline of non-vegetarian thali on a year-on-year basis.

However, when compared with broiler prices in February, the prices increased 5 per cent in March because of the start of the holy month of Ramadan and higher demand, the analysis report found.