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Kitchen budgets hit as spice prices skyrocket
Cumin seed (jeera), the most widely used spice, has become one of the costliest kitchen ingredients as prices have shot up to ₹750 per kg from ₹400 per kg in April.
LUCKNOW After soaring vegetable prices, now the increase in the prices of spices has sent kitchen budgets haywire.
Cumin seed (jeera), the most widely used spice, has become one of the costliest kitchen ingredients as prices have shot up to ₹750 per kg from ₹400 per kg in April.
Prices of many other spices, like melon seeds (kharbuje ke beej) and cloves (laung), have also shot up up. Melon seeds, currently priced at ₹750 kg, were being sold at ₹300 per kg three months back. Likewise, prices of have now gone up to ₹1200 from ₹1000 per kg in April.
“We are finding it very difficult to manage our kitchen as prices of spices skyrocketed in three months. Cumin is priced at ₹750 per kg but if you buy 250 gms, shopkeepers charge you ₹200,” said Lata Agarwal, a housewife.
Traders are blaming it on lesser yield, poor transportation due to cyclone Biparjoy and now monsoon rain. There is a mismatch in demand and supply. “We can’t do much as we are buying them at a much higher price. The prices of cumin and melon seeds have nearly doubled in three months,” said Rohit Ahuja of Moti Ram Provisional Store, a prominent shop in Fatehganj.
The demand-supply mismatch that has driven cumin prices to a record high has left the buyers shocked. A key reason behind the shortfall in cumin supply has been unfavourable weather. Farmers in major growing belts shifted to other crops such as mustard due to a sudden change in weather patterns marked by excess rainfall during sowing.
