PETALING JAYA: With Deepavali just three weeks away, home-based bakers preparing for the festival are grappling with rising ingredient costs, with some essentials such as ghee and nuts costing up to RM20 more than before.
Yet many are choosing to absorb part of the increase rather than pass the cost on to customers.
Krishnaveni Subbarow, 51, from Puchong, said basic ingredients such as butter, ghee and nuts cost more now.
“Margarine used to cost around RM75 for a 4.8kg tub but is now about RM98. Ghee weighing 4.8kg was around RM133, but (it is) RM220 now.
“Cashew nuts from India have increased from RM32 to RM58 for a 2kg packet, while 500g rice flour has increased from RM2.80 to RM4.
“Overall, the cost of making the biscuits has increased, so we have had to adjust our prices slightly and keep it reasonable for my customers,” she said, adding that orders for Deepavali started coming in since last month.
Krishnaveni added that traditional snacks such as murukku, sugee biscuit, Almond London and pineapple roll, chittu urundai (deep-fried sweet) are always in demand because people want the familiar taste of snacks they grew up with.
“However, there is also interest in newer flavours from younger customers such as matcha flavour or sarang semut (honeycomb cake) in red velvet flavour,” said Krishanaveni.
Dhivyashre N. Purusothuman, 25, from Subang, said rising ingredient costs had made it difficult to retain the price of biscuits and brownies.
“I started taking orders from the third week of September. Ingredients like butter, chocolates and specific nuts that I use for the biscuits went up between RM1 and RM2.
“Chocolate has also gone up from RM23 for 1kg to more than RM25 now,” she added.
Dhivyashre said customers were ordering more classic treats such as murukku and sugee biscuits.
She said despite the higher costs for main ingredients, she is not increasing prices.
Puspalatha Sundrajanu, 52, from Batu Caves, also said she is retaining the prices of biscuits despite higher costs for main ingredients.
The business owner, who has been selling Deepavali biscuits for 25 years, said the price of a tub of butter went up from RM68 last year to RM84 this year, while (wheat) flour rose from RM2.90 to RM4.40.
“Almonds and peanuts have also gone up by RM2 to RM3, including icing sugar,” she said.
To manage costs, Puspalatha buys ingredients such as chocolate and flour when supermarkets offer promotions.
“For now, I’m retaining my biscuit prices from last year, but I may increase them next year.”
Meanwhile, Teresa, who hails from Kulim, Kedah, said despite the higher cost of ingredients, she opted for a minimal rise as she wanted her cookies to remain affordable for her customers.
“They still prefer traditional snacks such as semperit, sugee biscuits and pineapple jam tarts,” the 29-year-old added.
