Nov 17, 2020
Festive brought a lot of good news especially for cooking oil and tea, which saw an increase in demand despite a cautious Diwali in the middle of pandemic and high prices.
In fact, the cooking oil demand grew by 10% compared to that in October, as Indians consumed more samosas, aloo tikkis and pakoras with cups of teas to celebrate Diwali at home with their near and dear ones, packet tea also surpassed last year’s Diwali sales. This happened despite a 30% increase in the prices of cooking oils from a year ago and a 25% increase in tea prices.
The demand for both the commodities also recovered in hotels and restaurants, though the requisite for the catering industry continued to be low because of the restrictions due to the ongoing pandemic.
Sudhakar Desai, president, Indian Vegetable Oil Producers’ Association, said that “Diwali demand for cooking oil was good. In most of the states in the country, demand was up by 10% than the normal monthly consumption of cooking oils and also there have been no supply chain issues.
The demand from hotels and restaurants also saw a revival and this was seen in the rising volumes of imported palm oil that is used by hotels and restaurants. During the lockdown months, imports had declined to 4 lakh tonnes per month. In October, imports shot up to 7.85 lakh tonnes, which indicates that about 85-90% of the HoReCa (hotel, restaurant, and cafe) demand has been achieved.
Viren Shah, chairman of the Federation of All India Tea Traders Association, the apex body of packet tea players, said, “Diwali sales have been good. We have surpassed last year’s Diwali numbers. The final figure will come out shortly. What is more important is that drinking tea in out-of-the-home format has picked up and is close to last year’s level.”
India’s domestic consumption is about 1,100 million kg a year, 800 million kg of which is consumed at home while the rest is consumed in an out-of-the-home format.