Tomato to Chicken: What’s Making Your Thali Cheaper in April 2025?

Home-cooked thali prices dropped by 4% YoY in April, driven by a slump in vegetable prices according to credit rating information firm, Crisil.

Supply Chain Disruptions
Amidst these price drops, LPG cylinder prices jumped by 6% while edible oils prices jumped to 19%, arising from import duties. 

Experts suggested edible oil prices to soften as supply is expected to diversify from different countries. 

Pushan Sharma, Director of Research, Crisil Intelligence, told ANI, “Edible oil prices are likely to soften over the next 2-3 months as global supplies pick up, mainly from Argentina, Indonesia and Malaysia.”

Price Decline Prevails
Despite these increases from different sources, the benefit of overall price drop in a home-cooked thali to the consumer has not eroded.

Vegetable prices led the forces in this price drop. Tomatoes saw the steepest YoY decline of 34%, from Rs 32 per kg in April 2024 to Rs 21 per kg in April 2024. 2024’s low crop yield led to this high base effect. 

Potato and onion  prices declined by 11% and 6% respectively caused by a high base effect arising due to blight infestation and unseasonal rainfall in West Bengal.

Broiler Chicken makes up 50% of the non-vegetarian thali’s cost and saw a 4% drop arising due oversupply and weakened demand amidst bird flu outbreaks in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

Monthly Estimates
Vegetarian thalis prices fell by 1% while non-vegetarian prices fell by 2% MoM basis in April 2024. These drops mainly arise from a fall in potato and onion prices by 2% and 14% respectively while broiler prices dropped by 2% MoM.

Tomato prices inched up by 1% MoM, but did not cause a huge impact on the thali prices as much.

Read More: WPI Inflation Eases to 2.05% in March, Down from 2.38% in February

Future Consequences
Pushan Sharma further added that rice and tomato prices are expected to rise on account of exports and seasonality. 

“Rice prices, though, are expected to inch up with a projected increase in exports. And among vegetables, onion prices are likely to be range-bound while tomato prices are forecast to rise on account of seasonality,"

(With Inputs From ANI)