SURAT: The sale of ghari has fallen by at least 30 per cent ahead of Chandni Padva festival in the city. Sweet shop owners attributed this to rise in the cost of raw material. They are selling ghari at the rate of 680 per kg, which is Rs 40 per kg more than last year’s price.
Sumul Dairy
and
Choryasi Dairy
, which didn’t raise much the
price of ghari
, saw their entire stock sold out ahead of the festival on Friday. Surtis like to consume ghari on Chandni Padva, which is a local festival.
Mahendra Ghariwala is owner of a sweet shop in the city. He said, “Some sweet shop owners feel harassed by Goods and Services Tax (GST). The GST on sweets is just 5 per cent and should not affect much to those people who use their own ghee, mava and sugar powder. We have not increased rate of ghari this year, but still our sale is down. People are finding it difficult to spend Rs 650 for a kg of sweets.”
Dhansukh Mithaiwala is also owner of another popular sweet shop in the city. He said, “The price of milk, mava, ghee and dry fruits have gone up. It is difficult for small sweet shop owners to buy raw material for products. This is why ghari business has been taken over by cooperatives and community mandals. Our ghari sale has seen a dip of 25 per cent this festival.”
Surat District Co-Operative Milk Producer's Union Limited (Sumul) sold 52 tonnes of ghari till Thursday, which is four tonnes more than its last year’s sales.
Sumul director Jayesh Patel said, “We use our own raw material. This is why it is cost-effective for us to make ghari. We sold ghari at last year’s rate at Rs 520 per kg.”
Choryasi Dairy officer Bharat Patel said, “We sold the entire stock of 5,000 kg ghari. This year we marginally raised the price of ghari to Rs 660 per kg as against last year’s rate of Rs 640 per kg.”