Telangana: Traders create artificial shortage of cooking oil

Hyderabad: The edible oil traders are at their old game again. Cash in on the war crisis seems to be their objective. The agencies that supply sunflower oil have pressed the red button and told the retailers across the State about the possible shortage of supplies in view of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

This has triggered oil supplying agencies and wholesale traders to resort to create artificial scarcity in the market so that the rates can be jacked up.

Telangana requires about 60,000 metric tonnes of edible oil every month. Of this, the share of sunflower oil is 20,000 metric tonnes. With the wholesalers reducing the supply, the retailers feel that they may run out of stocks by mid-March. A senior official of the Telangana State Cooperative Oil Seeds Growers Federation Limited told The Hans India that the war could adversely impact oil supplies leading to severe shortage. However, the government is yet to look into this issue and as of now no contingency plan has been thought of.

Currently, the major oil supplying companies - Freedom oil was supplying the highest quantity of 8,000 metric tonnes of sunflower oil in Telangana, followed by Gold Drop (6,000 tonnes) and Vijaya oil (1,500 tonnes). The only option available to them is to import sunflower oil from Afghanistan. This can be possible if the Government of India gives its nod for imports from Afghanistan.

Now, some supermarkets have already been displaying no-stock boards. When asked, they said the agencies are likely to repack them with new increased rates on oil packets before releasing the stocks. The prices are likely to be increased by Rs 20 to Rs 30 per litre in about a week to 10 days, they say.

The State Legal Metrology department has so far not taken any steps to curb hoarding of the sunflower oil, traders said, adding that the oil supply agencies were exploiting the market for higher profits during the crisis time.