How India Eats: Steep cuts in thali costs in August

Easing of prices of tomato, vegetable oil, chilli, cumin and fuel brought down costs of home-cooked vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis in August. Cheaper broiler chicken helped the price of non-veg thalis to fall steeply. However, prices of two key ingredients, onion and potato, remained high.

Average price of a home-cooked veg thali fell 4 percent to Rs 31.2 in August, compared to Rs 32.6 in July, shows a Crisil analysis; it also declined by 8 percent from Rs 34 in August 2023.

Tomato prices fell 51 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 50 per kg in August, from Rs 102 per kg in same month last year due to fresh arrivals from southern and western states; it fell 23 percent in August from Rs 66 per kg in July. Tomato accounted for 14 percent of a veg thali’s cost in August. Fuel cost slipped to Rs 803 for a 14.2 kg LPG cylinder in Delhi in March from Rs 1,103 in August last year. This, too, contributed to the decline of thali prices, say Crisil.

Prices of vegetable oil eased 6 percent, chilli by 30 percent, and cumin by 58 percent y-o-y; they account for less than 5 percent of the veg thali’s cost. However, high prices of onion and potato in August impacted overall thali prices: Potato prices rose 2 percent and onion by 3 percent month-on-month (m-o-m) in August.

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The average price of a non-veg thali fell by 12 percent in August y-o-y to Rs 59.3; it was Rs 67.5 in August last year. On a monthly basis, a non-veg thali was cheaper by 3 percent from Rs 61.4. This was helped by a 13 percent y-o-y drop in price of broiler chicken, which accounts for 50 percent of non-veg thali costs. This price fell by 1 to 3 percent m-o-m, due to Shravan, when non-veg consumption drops in India.

The average cost of a thali is calculated based on input prices in north, south, east and west India. The data also reveals the ingredients (cereals, pulses, broiler poultry, vegetables, spices, edible oil, cooking gas) driving changes in the cost of a thali.

Forbes India's monthly series 'How India Eats' takes a look at how the average price of a food plate in India changes every month, indicating the impact on the common man's expenditure, by analysing the Indian thali.