Dubai: Vegetables get slightly expensive, but fish and fruits are cheaper now!

Dubai: The cost of fruits and fish were seen largely dropping this week after staying pricier than usual for the past few weeks. However, some staple vegetables like onions and tomatoes got a bit more expensive.

When analysing price changes seen through the entire week, as expected, the changes that were seen in the costs of most grocery items, including the price of fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry and seafood, were not all that significant - except for a few.

While the cost of most poultry variants stayed in check, like frozen chicken and eggs, the cost of fresh chicken had a volatile week. After spiking over a dirham at the start of the week from last weekend, prices fluctuated every day, but ended the week at the same price level it started.

Fish prices drop

The first three days had seen the cost of all seafood varieties stay the same after largely rising last week, however towards the latter half of this week the cost of most fish variants dropped. So, if you were looking to protect yourself from any future price increases, now would be the ideal time stock up or try out a seafood dish!

When studying the trend of seafood prices, the cost of a few popular fish variants that were constantly seen fluctuating in prior weeks, like Hammour, Salmon and Seabass, stayed in check.

Another good news for these seafood lovers is that the price of a kilo of small shrimp, which had dropped Dh5.6 on Saturday last week, remained more or less unchanged since! Although at the the start of the week, the cost had spiked momentarily, it has dropped back to lower price levels.

Cost of veggies fluctuate, fruits prices drop!

The price of vegetables like onions and tomatoes – the common staples in almost every household – in previous months have kept fluctuating back and forth. However, it was observed that the previous two weeks, costs of the two items saw little-to-any change. Towards the end of this week there was a slight spike in prices of the two items.

While the daily per kilogram costs for every other variety of vegetable in the market stayed largely the same during the week, and as cheap as last week, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get some grocery shopping done this weekend!

Moreover, as fruits like oranges and apples have become slightly cheaper, after having risen a couple of weeks back, go ahead and stock up on those, too.

Key highlights pertaining to price changes that were seen through the entire week:

The cost of fresh chicken after rising Dh1.5 from last week-end, slipped by Dh1.80 from Sunday. A kilo now costs Dh12. The cost of eggs and frozen chicken stayed the same.

When coming to seafood, the cost of fish stayed largely unchanged at the start of the week, but dropped towards the end of the week, particularly the cost of Seabass, Salmon and Kingfish. A kilo of Seabream now costs Dh35, falling from Dh38.9 a kilo seen last week. Also, the cost of Hammour, which has a starting cost of Dh66, stayed the same since.

The cost of a kilogram of Salmon is now at Dh39.9, slipping slightly after the price level stayed steady in the first few days of the week. The price of Kingfish fell to Dh34.9, from Dh42.9 a kilo.

However, the cost of small-sized shrimp, after dropping Dh5.6 a kilo last week, fell further this week. It now costs Dh29.9, dropping from Dh31.9 seen at the start of the week. So, consider picking up some shrimp this weekend, which will be easy on your pocket.

When it comes to fruits, apples now cost Dh5 per kilogram and stayed cheap, dropping from Dh6 seen mid-week. When it comes to a kilo of lime, after slipping Dh1 from last weekend – now rose back to Dh5 per kilo. However, the price of bananas edged up 50fils for a second time this week and now costs Dh4.

The cost of lettuce – which often fluctuates – is now priced at Dh5 for a kilogram, and has not changed this entire week.