August 2024: Palaw costs decline by 12%.
In August 2024, the average cost of preparing palaw in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan decreased to 60.2 Turkmen manat, an 11.7% reduction from 68.2 manat in August 2023. This also represents a smaller 1.6% decline from July 2024’s price of 61.1 manat. Globally, food prices fell by 1.1% in August 2024 compared to the previous year, based on the FAO’s Food Price Index.
Ashgabat saw an overall drop in the prices of all palaw ingredients in August 2024 compared to the prior year. Onion prices registered the steepest fall, dropping by 44.1%. Other significant price declines included rice (-27.5%), beef (-5.5%), wheat flour (-5.0%), sunflower oil (-1.4%), and carrots (-0.6%), as illustrated in Figure 1.
FAO Price Index Changes for Various Product Categories
- The FAO Cereal Price Index, which covers wheat and other grains, dropped 11.9% year-over-year in August 2024, driven by heightened competition among exporters and weaker global demand for wheat.
- The FAO All Rice Price Index edged up by 0.6% in August 2024.
- The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index climbed by 8.1% YoY during the same month.
- Finally, the FAO Meat Price Index recorded a slight rise of 3.7% over the same period.
Rice prices are on decline
The price for 1kg of rice has been declining in Ashgabat for the last one year. Its price decreased from 17.9 manat in August 2023 to 13 manat in August 2024. As reported by the publication ‘Turkmenistan Golden Age’, over 8,000 hectares of rice have been planted in the northern part of Turkmenistan this year. In response to a rise in the state purchase price, farmers in the Dashoguz region have been increasing rice cultivation.
Correlation between palaw prices and the black-market rate
In recent years (2020-2022), Palaw Index price changes closely followed the USD/manat black market exchange rate. However, this correlation seemed to weaken due to a stable exchange rate around 19 manat/USD since 2022. The biggest driver of changes in palaw prices in 2023 were external factors such as increased supply of sunflower oil and wheat flour in the global market.
Methodology
Prices of ingredients in the Palaw Index are collected for 1 kg of onion, carrot, beef, rice, and flour, and 1 liter of cooking oil. Based on the methodology, in order to cook palaw for a family of four, we use 0.3 liters of cooking oil, 0.5 kg of onion, 1 kg of carrots, 0.6 kg of beef, 1 kg of rice, and 0.5 kg of flour in our formula. Please click here to learn more about the methodology of the Palaw Index.
Progres team strives to make Palaw Index reports as inclusive as possible by tracking the price changes of palaw in all major cities of Turkmenistan. Therefore, we kindly ask you to help us in collecting the prices by filling this out the form.
