Indian commodities market braces for festive surge: gold, edible oil, and spices expected to shine

The festive season has a major influence on the prices of a wide range of commodities, For instance, Indians flock to the jewellery stores to buy gold during Dhanteras. With prices witnessing a decline, experts anticipate demand to surge.

Items frequently used in households like spices, and edible oil are also likely to get a boost from demand and the festive season as Indians indulge in various delicacies.

Suvankar Sen, CEO of Senco Gold and Diamonds, expressed his optimism on CNBC-TV18, stating that the recent price slump in gold is expected to drive increased buying during the upcoming festive season.

“With the gold prices coming down, and the festive season just around the corner. We see that the winter weddings, and also the plan for Dhanteras, consumer start moving around the stores, reaching out to the shops and the customer starts giving them advances and selecting the products for the season."

He thinks the price coming down will encourage customers to be keen to buy more products.

On the outlook for the edible oil business, Angshu Mallick, MD of Adani Wilmar, discussed how high imports earlier in the year were driven by strong consumption. He said, "Imports were much higher in the early part of the year and that is because the consumption story was very very strong. Against an average consumption growth of 5-7 percent, we saw 25 percent in branded oil.”

He added, “With more education, more income, the demand for better brands, more hygienic brands, more quality conscious brands or value for money, but functional brands people are looking for it. And that is why cold press or organic.”

CNBC-TV18's Manisha Gupta also interviewed Rajiv Shah, Director of Everest Foods, and Kirandip Swani, MD of Swani Spice, to explore the ongoing debate in the spices sector regarding the organised versus the unorganised businesses and its implications for India.

Shah said, “There has been a continuous growth from the unorganised to the organised. I guess, everything is important for such a large country. Eventually, the organised sector is growing in leaps and bounds every year and we cannot have any complaints.”