South India’s household grocery costs have changed sharply in recent years, with sunflower oil showing one of the biggest increases. Between August 2024 and August 2026, sunflower oil prices rose by 74.4% in Telangana, 68.1% in Karnataka, 67.3% in Tamil Nadu and 63.4% in Andhra Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, the price increased from ₹115.71/kg to ₹193.58/kg. However, the increase from 2022 to 2026 was only 6.2%, because sunflower oil prices had fallen substantially before reaching their 2024 low.
Coriander recorded an even larger increase in Tamil Nadu, nearly doubling from ₹23.82/kg in 2024 to ₹46.11/kg in 2026 — a 93.6% rise. Sugar has also become considerably more expensive: Tamil Nadu's average price increased from ₹40.11/kg in 2022 to ₹53.58/kg in 2026, an increase of 33.6%.
Other everyday essentials have also moved upward. Rice in Tamil Nadu increased from ₹48.44/kg in 2022 to ₹60.25/kg in 2026, up 24.4%, while salt increased from ₹22.22 to ₹27.29/kg, up 22.8%. Milk saw a smaller rise, from ₹41.67/litre to ₹44.53/litre, an increase of 6.9% over the same period.
However, not everything has become more expensive. Tur dal in Tamil Nadu fell from ₹172.89/kg in 2024 to ₹131.31/kg in 2026 — down 24%. Red chilli prices declined 9.3%, while turmeric recorded a substantial 43.6% fall, from ₹28.90/kg to ₹16.29/kg. This shows that food-price inflation has varied significantly between different commodities.
Looking at the longer national trend, packed sunflower oil has almost doubled in price over 10 years, rising from ₹96.32/kg in August 2016 to ₹190.92/kg in 2026 — a 98.2% increase. The data analysed by South First comes from the Union government's Price Monitoring Division, which tracks 38 essential commodities through 575 reporting centres, showing that households are facing higher costs particularly for cooking oil, rice and sugar, even as some pulses and spices have become cheaper.
