Till now we were crying about tomatoes. Tomatoes went from 20 to 250. How will there be seasoning, without tomato the vegetable becomes tasteless. The tomatoes arrived on the way in a month and a half. But spices have now become useless in order to secretly make the taste tasteless. In the last two months, the prices of essential spices used in the kitchen have doubled, some have doubled and some have more than doubled. The prices of spices have an impact on the household budget of housewives. From the food available in hotels to the chaat and pakodas of street food.

The issue of spices is not even a topic of discussion anywhere. There is a lot of discussion from Parliament to the streets regarding the increase in prices of onion and tomato. The prices of small cardamom, which is included in hot spices and enhances the taste of sweets and kheer, increased to Rs 1300 per kg recently. Small cardamom which was available at Rs 2200 per kg is now available at Rs 3500 per kg.

Use of cumin as a spice and seasoning is essential in everyday kitchen. Cumin is used in buttermilk, raita etc. The price of cumin has doubled in the last two months. Cumin has reached Rs 800 per kg from Rs 400 per kg.

Grocery wholesalers and retailers say that in recent times the prices of spices like cumin, black pepper, turmeric, whole chilli, turmeric fennel etc. have increased rapidly. The increase in wholesale prices has also affected retail spices. Packed spices of different brands have had a complete impact on this. Earlier people used to buy these spices in large quantities. Due to increase in prices, people especially of low income group are consuming cumin, black pepper, cardamom etc. in very less quantity. He told that middle class people generally take household ration together. The increased bill bothers him but he did not pay much attention to it. The increased prices of spices are fully reflected in their monthly ration.

This sudden increase in the prices of spices is troubling housewives. Sunita Yadav, Brahmo Kataria, Jayanti Rawat, Hema Singh etc. of Dayanand Colony say that these increased prices are secretly stealing our household savings. The government should pay attention to the prices of essential spices. Now we have to cut down cumin, whole chilli and hot spices in vegetables. The government should pay attention to this issue of housewives.

Spices                          Previous                Now

Cumin                           Rs 400             800 per kg

Black pepper                Rs 600             900 per kg

Small cardamom          Rs 2200           3500 per kg

Fennel                          Rs 300             350 per kg

Whole chilli                   Rs 250            360 per kg

Turmeric                       Rs 120            190 per kg

Spices                  Previous    Now

Chaat Masala        68             85

kitchen king           72             92

Chana Masala       68             85

Kasuri Methi          24             30