Restricted supply lifts prices of essential items
   Date :31-Mar-2020

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Business Bureau :
 
Solvent plants will resume operations from April 1, 2020 
 
AS THE lockdown continues, prices of essential commodities have shot up due to restricted supply in the market. People are perturbed over the rising prices of basic household items like edible oil, foodgrains, pulses, rice and dals. They are afraid that if things continue like this, the prices of essential commodities may go out of their reach.
 
Rajesh Thakkar, President of Oil Merchant Association, Itwari said that the prices of soyabean oil are flying high as there is dearth in the market. Also soyabean oil is the most sought after cooking oil by the consumers. In wholesale market, the prices of soyabean oil have increased to Rs 1,580 per for tin of 15 kg as compared to Rs 1,400 per tin of 15 kg earlier. Similarly, groundnut oil has surged to Rs 2,200 per tin of 15 kg as compared to Rs 2,100 earlier. Thakkar has requested the public not to panic for soyabean oil as there are other options in edible oils like sunflower oil, groundnut oil, cotton seed oil, rice bran oil etc., which are available in market at a reasonable prices.
 
The general public can also buy these edible oils for cooking from kirana shops. On an average the demand for all edible oils is 100 tonne per day in Nagpur. Out of this, the demand for soyabean oil accounts for 65 per cent and other oils 35 per cent. Accordingly, there is some shortage of soyabean oil due to closure of soyabean plants in Vidarbha. In a bid to control prices, there is a need to increase the supply of soyabean oil to kirana shops. In this matter, several rounds of discussions have already been conducted with the authorities.
 
“Now, it has been decided that the soyabean plants will resume operations from April 1. Even after this, there will challenges like getting workers and raw materials at the solvent plants,” he added. Pratap Motwani, Secretary of The Wholesale Grain and Seeds Merchants Association said that prices of pulses, dals and grains have gone up due to various reasons like low supply and panic buying by consumers. He said that prices of grains and dals have inflated by Rs 100 per quintal to Rs 150 per quintal as compared to the prices quoted 10 days ago.
 
Similarly, prices of rice has gone up by Rs 50 per quintal to Rs 100 per quintal. In the wholesale market the prices of grains are being quoted at Rs 2,300 per quintal to Rs 3,500 per quintal, rice at Rs 2,500 per quintal to Rs 4,500 per quintal, tur dal at Rs 7,000 per quintal to Rs 8,800 per quintal, chana dal at Rs 6,000 per quintal to Rs 6,500 per quintal, masoor dal at Rs 60 per kg to Rs 65 per kg and mung mogar at Rs 85 per kg to Rs 105 per kg. Motwani said that the people should not panic as Government will be distributing food kits through the public distribution system to the ration card holders at discounted prices from April. The food kit will include 5 kg foodgrain, 5 kg rice and 1 kg dal. This will ease the demand for essential commodities to a great extent, he added.