With the prices of staple commodities reaching unprecedented heights, Indian households are making a significant change by switching from big boxes to small packets and sachets.
Due to tight kitchen budgets, consumers are altering their spending habits, leading to noticeable changes in the market. Instead of purchasing fresh tomatoes, people are opting for small cartons of tomato puree. Similarly, fresh ginger is being replaced with convenient single-use sachets of ginger paste, and loose cumin powder is being substituted with tiny 7-gram sachets.
Sukanya Sinha, a postgraduate student who lives in south Kolkata, said, “Since last week I’ve been using tomato puree in my cooking and its value for money.”
Tomato puree pouches are available in smaller packs of 200 gm, which cost just INR 25, she added.
The surge in prices of fruits, vegetables, and spices due to rainfall can be associated with behavioral changes. Tomatoes, for instance, have experienced a drastic price increase, reaching INR 100/kg. Cumin powder, previously priced at INR 550/kg just a month ago, has recently spiked to INR 800/kg. Likewise, ginger has also witnessed a remarkable surge in price.
The transition can also be attributed to the fact that these commodities are integral to the staple Indian diet.
“Cumin powder is an essential ingredient in most vegetarian and non-vegetarian Indian dishes. With its price soaring, I have started using sachet packs that are less expensive,” said Soma Dey, a homemaker residing on Canal West Road.
Until recently, various brands in the city offered cumin powder sachets priced as low as INR 5 for a 9 gm quantity. “Last week, all cumin powder sachets in my shop were sold out. The fresh lot that has arrived costs the same but the quantity is now 7 gm,” said Jai Prakash Gupta, who runs a grocery shop at Janbazar.
He further stated that there has been a notable decrease in the sales of loose cumin powder, accompanied by a corresponding surge in the demand for small sachet packs. Likewise, the availability of small ginger-garlic paste sachets has been dwindling rapidly, primarily due to the exorbitant prices of ginger.
A TOI report citing Janice Lee, director at a Chinese firm that has been making sauces and food products for eight decades, stated that the demand for tomato puree has hit unprecedented levels in recent days. An 800-gm pack of tomato puree pouch costs INR 60, which is way more economical than cooking with tomatoes. “We can maintain the price because we acquire the annual stock in winter when tomato prices are at their lowest,” she said.
“Small packs and sachets of spices and purees are almost always available at a lower price than the market rate of these products. It may be an innovative marketing policy by big companies. Also once habituated, customers tend to prefer sachets,” said Abhijit Nandy, who has a stationery shop in Bhowanipore.