IELTS Writing Task 1 line graph: prices of rice, lentils and onions

The line graph illustrates how the average retail price of three staple foods, namely rice, lentils and onions, changed over the twelve months of 2024 in one country.

Overall, the three foods followed very different patterns. While the price of rice barely changed and lentils became steadily more expensive, onion prices were extremely volatile, rising to a dramatic peak in the autumn before falling back sharply.

Rice was the most stable item, fluctuating only slightly between $0.92 and $0.98 per kilogram throughout the year. Lentils, which were the most expensive food for most of the year, rose gradually but consistently from $1.40 in January to $1.82 in December, an increase of around 30%.

Onions, by contrast, were the cheapest item in the first half of the year, bottoming out at just $0.50 per kilogram in March. From June onwards, however, their price soared, overtaking rice in August and lentils in September, before peaking at $2.40 in October, almost five times its lowest point. This surge was short-lived, as the price plummeted to $0.90 by December, slightly below that of rice.