No panic buying like last time; labour migration lower: Parle exec

As India reels under a fierce second wave of COVID and lockdown fears loom, Mayank Shah, Senior Category Head of Parle Products said that rural demand scenario is far better than urban.

“Rural, while cases are going up, the scenario is still much better compared to urban. The reason being that population density there is much lesser and at any given point in time if you see cases surging in a particular pocket, it can be contained to a certain village which in total scheme of things is not big unit in terms of demand,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Shah also said that unlike last year, there is no panic buying. However, there is mild pantry loading of biscuits, he said.

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“There is no panic buying as it was last time because people know this time that essentials would be available. There is a little bit of surge in buying, but I would not call it speculative buying, it is little bit of pantry loading, especially in categories which have higher shelf life like biscuits,” he said.

He also said that labour migration is not as high as last year. “Labour migration is there, but it is not to the quantum of what it was last time. Having learnt the hard way that there is little employment opportunity in rural India. They are going partly also because of their annual holiday which they take in summers, but otherwise migration is not as high,” he said.