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Economics of the vada pav
Updated On: 08 February, 2011 06:44 AM IST | | J Dey and Poornima Swaminathan
Prices of pulses and vatana, ingredients that go into making your favourite vada pav, go through a 150 per cent hike from the farmer's hand till it reaches the retailer
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Prices of pulses and vatana, ingredients that go into making your favourite vada pav, go through a 150 per cent hike from the farmer's hand till it reaches the retailer
You don't really mind paying the eight or less bucks for your vada pav, do you? But the quick and affordable snack easily found on the city's streets could actually cost you less. But that is in an ideal world.
In this world, you start by considering that the average production cost of a vada pav comes to Rs 3.10 if stall owners use besan (or chana dal flour), the basic ingredient used to make the vada's covering. 
But most sellers substitute it with white vatana (peas) flour, because it is cheaper.
"Besan is more expensive. We mix the flour as it does not change the taste too much," admitted a stall owner in Parel.
With the mixed flour, a vada pav's cost is suppressed to Rs 2.50. But the profits are not passed on to you.
However, you don't begrudge the vada pav walla his measly profit because the snack tastes the same and is not any the unhealthier for the substitution.
Now suppose that the seller could get vatana at a cheaper price which is how it would have been had hoarders not cornered the market. Then the snack would cost you less.
But by the time it reaches your household, or the vada walla round the corner, it undergoes a 150 per cent hike in prices.
How does this giant leap come about?
Inflated price
MiD DAY carried out a detailed investigation, identified the main players in the market, and tried arriving at the possible reasons for the prices jacking up.
We traced the entire journey, right from the time is it imported from Canada and Australia until it reaches your neighbourhood grocery store or supermarket.
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