Soaring spice prices turn masala dishes costly

Visakhapatnam: Biryani, Pulao and other  delicious masala dishes will be more dearer as the prices of the spices have been skyrocketing in the state. After the Kerala disaster, the wholesale dealers of spices blocked the stocks and creating artificial demand for them.

Kerala is famous for exporting  various spices to other parts in the country. During the recent massive floods, crops in several hundreds of acres were badly damaged. It is learnt that it will take time for recover from the damage. 

Expecting demand in future, the wholesale dealers of spices are hoarding the existing stocks and increased the prices. Though Andhra Pradesh is one of the states producing spices, the wholesale dealers are procuring them from Kerala at cheaper prices.  

According to Spices Board of India, the spices are stored in the cold storage normally and after the second crop comes for harvest, the existing stocks are released into market. However, the prices of the spices at the retail stores have gone up as the crops were severely damaged and it is estimated that there would be huge shortage of the produce against the demand.

The nutmeg, dry mace, cloves,  green cardamom, dry ginger, black pepper and several other spices are mostly coming from Kerala. After the floods in Kerala, in Visakhapatnam the nutmeg prices have risen to Rs 900 from Rs. 500 per a kg. The price of dry mace, which was Rs 1,100 a kg before floods, is now being sold at Rs 1,900 per kg.