Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Mar 8: Because of the war that has broken out between Ukraine and Russia, many commodities in India have become costly. The price Of essentials have already soared. Sunflower oil price has shot up. Because of the coronavirus impact, the price of cooking oil had already crossed Rs 150 per litre. Now, all of a sudden the price of sunflower oil has been increased by a hundred rupees.
Blackmarketeers have been trying to encash on this situation by hoarding cooking oil. The government has announced tough measures to contain this practice. Hotel owners and others have taken measures to stock sufficient quantity of oil in expectation of price rise and because of this, price of sunflower oil has gone up. It is said that prices of other cooking oils will also shoot up.
Ukraine happens to be the major country that supplies sunflower oil to India. Because of the ongoing war, the supply to businessmen has been obstructed. Therefore, sunflower oil has become costlier. About a week back, sunflower oil was sold between Rs 110 to 140 a litre. It has now reached Rs 170 to 220. A wholesaler, Manjunath, said that if the situation continues and the ports in Ukraine are not opened for export, prices of oils may go further up in the coming days. The Karnataka Oil Federation officials said that Karnataka is a big consumer of oil seeds.
Out of cooking oil imports of this country, about 15 percent is sunflower oil. Most of it came from Ukraine, central food and public distribution department says. Karnataka imported 25 to 30 thousand tonnes of sunflower oil per month. If the cooking oil shortage happens because of supply chain blockade, prices of cooking oil are likely to continue to gallop.
Sources said that in a recent meeting of food department officials, it was opined that tough measures have to be taken to tackle hoarding. At present the state does not face a shortage of cooking oil. The food department has reduced the quantum of oil wholesalers and retailers can hold at any given point of time. Food department additional secretary, Kapil Mohan said that the officials will conduct surprise raids on godowns to check the stock and take steps as might be neessary.
Bengaluru city requires 900 tonnes of sunflower oil for its population of 1.25 crore per day. Sunflower oil is mainly supplied to Karnataka from Mangaluru port and Andhra Pradesh as well as Gujarat. But incoming stock has almost dried up after the war broke out, said managing director of Karnataka Oil Seeds Cooperative Federation C G Reddy.