New Delhi: Nearly 24% of Indian households have cut down on edible oil consumption and 67% are paying more for it as prices of cooking oil soared in the past few months, a survey has revealed.
The survey also indicated that 29% of households were coping with the price hike by switching to cheaper alternatives.
The poll, conducted by community social media platform LocalCircles, received more than 36,000 responses across 359 districts.
“The rise in prices of edible oils is forcing some of the low and middle-income households to opt for cheaper and low-quality oils, which in the long run can potentially lead to health risks, including thyroid, stomach cancer and weaker intestines,” the survey found.
As many as 50 per cent of the respondents said they were consuming the same amount of oil as before but paying from their savings while 17 per cent were cutting down on other spending to maintain their consumption level.
Participants of the survey also demanded government intervention in black marketing, and hoarding oil and sought a cap of trade margin on edible oil “till the prices came back to normal levels”.
Prices of cooking oils have seen record hikes across the globe, more so due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The survey noted that domestic edible oil prices have risen by 50-100% in the last 12 months, and by 25-40% in the last 45 days.
The prices of edible oils such as sunflower oil, peanut oil, canola oil, sesame oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, mustard oil, palm oil, and olive oil have increased 50-70% in the past few months from their pre-Covid levels. Sunflower, peanut and mustard oil were identified as the most used cooking oils in India.
The country is also the top buyer of palm, soyabean and sunflower oils. According to a Reuters report, India imports sun oil mainly from Russia and Ukraine. It imports palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, whereas the bulk of soy oil is sourced from Argentina and Brazil.
“The price of sunflower oil, used by the majority of Indian households, increased from Rs 98 per litre in mid-February 2019 to between Rs 180-250 per litre,” the findings showed.
Of the 36,000 responses, 63 per cent the respondents were men while 37 per cent were women. The study also categorised the participants based on their location with nearly 43 per cent coming from Tier 1 cities, 31% from Tier 2 cities. Twenty-six per cent of respondents were from Tier 3, 4 and rural districts.
Also read: Soaring edible oil prices threaten efforts to keep inflation under control
Source: The Print
