Why a 5 kg bag of our atta costs ₹340

Our 5 kg bag of sharbati atta costs more than the packets at a supermarket and less than some branded stone-ground flours. Customers ask how we arrive at the number, so here it is.

We pay our three Sehore farms around ₹48 a kilo for sharbati after the March harvest, more than the mandi rate, because they keep the grain clean and dry. Five kilos of flour need a little over five kilos of grain, so the wheat alone is about ₹250.

Then comes the work. Cleaning, washing and drying, the electricity for the chakki, the stone dressing every few months and the hours of the four people who run the mill add about ₹45 a bag. The paper bag, label and the cloth tie add about ₹12. Delivery within Indore is included, and that van costs us roughly ₹15 per bag on an average day.

That leaves a small margin, which is how a neighbourhood mill stays open. We change the price once a year, in April, after the new wheat is bought, and our WhatsApp list hears about it a month before it changes. We do not run discounts on atta, because the grain costs us the same every week.