consumer staple companies said an erratic monsoon and a weak rupee may keep prices of consumer staples high during the upcoming festive season all eyes are now on how the monsoon performs in the remaining weeks of the juneseptember rainy season amid growing concerns over el ninos impactaccording to india meteorological department figures 270 districts received deficient rains while 19 districts are largely deficient from june 1 to august 22 this southwest monsoon season the districts are largely spread over west bengal odisha jharkhand bihar uttar pradesh madhya pradesh chhattisgarh maharashtra telangana and kerala advt while we dont see inflation as a big concern patchy monsoons could impact some amount of consumer demand in the upcoming festive season specially in rural markets shortfall in rain directly impacts crops and that dampens consumer sentiment we are hoping the deficit in rainfall will reverse in the coming weeks said krishnarao buddha senior category head marketing at parle products indias largest biscuits makerprices of basmati rice have already climbed by 78 in the last month after the government put a ban on the export of nonbasmati raw white rice exports of basmati are witnessing a surge post banning of nonbasmati rice resulting in prices moving up now if the monsoon is erratic then it will put further pressure on the overall availability of rice the lengthy dry spell could impact the domestic soya bean crop a major source of soybean oil said angshu mallick managing director of adani wilmar which sells the fortune brand of productsthe weakening of the rupee against the dollar has added to the woes of imported consumer staples like edible oils mallick said if the rupee weakens further then the company will have to look into whether to pass on the increased cost on imported edible oil to customersatul garg managing director of grm overseas said although rice planting gathered pace in the junejuly period due to the revival of the monsoon erratic rainfalls afterwards had impacted the rice cropping and this would have a prolonged impact on the cost of consumer staples given the prevailing scenario consumer staples prices are likely to remain elevated for a few more weeks garg said advt consumer inflation soared to a oneyear high of 74 in july above the reserve bank of indias upper threshold of 6 amid higher food costs sraboni haralalka executive director of wodehouse capital advisors said besides the monsoon rbis policy statement also showed that firms expect inflation to trend upwards in short the economy is not yet past the point where inflation is no longer a threat to macroeconomic stability by sutanuka ghosal ratna bhushan et bureau published on aug 23 2023 at 0817 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language