After two years of gap, there is great enthusiasm among citizens to celebrate the Diwali festival in a big way. However, the rising prices of a few essential items have made the celebration a little costly. The Diwali Faral is one of the items that saw around a 20 to 30% price rise from previous years. Traders and retailers blame the rising cost of ingredients.
As oil is one of the major ingredients for making farals like chivda, shankarpali, karanji, chakali and others, the cascading effect of oil price hike is being seen this year.
Vitthal Pawar, a seller of faral at APMC market in Vashi said that the cost of the ingredients used in making tasty faral has gone up this year and thus prices of all kinds of faral have seen between 20 to 30 percent rise. The cost of Bhajni Chakli which was sold at Rs 400 per kg last year is now commanding a price of Rs 550 per kg. Similarly, sweet shankarpali is available at Rs 550 per kg while it was available at Rs 350 per kg. Even boondi ladoo crossed Rs 650 per kg which was available at Rs 450 per kg.
Despite the rise in prices, according to retailers, they are getting a good number of customers. “The sale of faral continues even a day after Diwali as many people give it to others,” said another retailer, adding that they are doing good business.
While many people prefer cleanliness and hygiene, branded or packed faral costs more. “There are varieties of buyers. But buyers always check the hygiene and so the sale of packed faral is high.
Arpika Patil, a resident of Nerul said that there is a rise in prices but they are buying as they could not celebrate the festival for the last two years. “There is special demand from children for faral,” said Patil.
