30 Indian Minds Leading the AI Revolution

Why cooking oils, fruits and nuts pinched your household budget in July

Food inflation at an eight-year low, but imported ingredients pushed up costs; inflation in coconut oil touched 132 percent year-on-year

By Samreen Wani

Published: Aug 13, 2025 05:27:30 PM IST

Updated: Aug 13, 2025 07:24:26 PM IST

Inflation in refined oil, like sunflower oil, was almost fifteen times the average inflation rate in July. Image: Amit Bhargava/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Food prices might have slipped for the second straight month but cooking oil, fruits and nuts remain expensive. While the price of coconut oil more than doubled in July, the costs of cashews and apples remained significantly higher too.

Inflation in coconut oil—which, apart from your lunch and dessert, is also widely used in producing cosmetics, soaps, detergents, pharmaceuticals and as an industrial lubricant—touched 132 percent in July compared to the same month last year. This is a significant increase compared to the previous months: Coconut oil inflation has averaged about 68 percent between January and June this year.

Declining coconut yield due to unfavourable weather conditions, in the midst of global supply shortage, scarcity of labour, diversion of the usage of the oil for industrial purposes and a rise in retail sales of tender coconut could all explain the rise in costs. Inflation in green coconuts was 16 percent in July.

Inflation also impacted cheaper cooking oils, many of which are imported. For instance, refined oil like sunflower oil saw almost 15x the average inflation rate in July. Similarly, mustard oil, at 20 percent, was 13 times the retail inflation figure.

Fruits and nuts were not affordable either as most of these are imported. India’s import of fruits and nuts jumped by 48 percent in FY25 compared to the previous year. The prices of apples and pineapples exceeded 15 percent; inflation in grapes, guavas and other fresh fruits was 11 percent.

While cashew inflation touched 14 percent, raisins were at 12 percent in July. The prices of other nuts and dry fruits, too, exceeded the average inflation rate by six times—at 8.1 percent in July, the inflation for walnuts was five times the average inflation print.