OUT OF STOCK

Shortage of edible oils in grocery shops as mills down shutters

Yogesh Kabirdoss and V Ayyappan TNN

Chennai:07.04.2020

Grocery shops are running out of packaged edible oil as mills in Tamil Nadu have downed shutters and there are restrictions on movement of transport vehicles.

Neighbourhood shops in different pockets of Chennai and suburbs are turning customers away. Karthik, who runs a provision store inside Zam Bazaar market, said packed edible oil could not be transported to local markets. "Several shops are not placing fresh orders because there are logistical issues. So, traders are not placing new orders either," he said.

Cooking oil distributors say 13,000 tonnes of branded packed gingelly oil, refined groundnut oil, refined sunflower oil and coconut oil, mostly consumed by households, is sold in Chennai every month. This translates to about 4.33 lakh litres of packed cooking oil sold in the city everyday, with sunflower oil the most sought. This daily sale number does not include unlabelled oil.

A M Vikramaraja, president of Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangankalin Peramaippu, said oil mills across the state have not resumed operations because of non-availability of labour.

"Oil milling is labour intensive. Ninety per cent of the work force that includes a large number of guest workers have left for their hometowns once the lockdown was announced," he told TOI. While grocery shops have ran out of stock, he said, departmental stores have stocked adequate quantity of edible oil. "The issue could be resolved, if all departmental shops are reopened," he added.

Tamil Nadu has 20 major oil mills with a majority concentrated in north Chennai, Erode, Virudhunagar and Thoothukudi districts. This apart, more than 2,000 small oil mill units are spread across the state.