Do you remember the great fruit price outrage this Ramzan? An exercise that forced fruit sellers in various Pakistani cities to bring down their prices significantly?This time Vegetables are breaking records yet again and the players are tomatoes.
Only this time, a great shortage of vegetables (particular of tomatoes and onions) has hit the country. And true to form, prices of those essential vegetable items have doubled in many cities. Owing to halting of tomatoes and onions’ supply from India, not only the prices have been almost doubled in the federal capital but also gone beyond reach of the common man.
In Karachi, tomatoes are being sold between Rs.160 to Rs.200 per kilo. In the city’s biggest wholesale grocery market in Liaquatabad, tomatoes are being sold at Rs.160. Price has gone up by Rs.40 per kg which is expensive even than a dollar.
A meeting between Pakistan and India businessmen is scheduled to be held at the border regarding tomatoes’ supply. Efforts would be made to chalk out joint strategy during the meeting to restore trade between the two countries
Traders say that the government was sleeping as it transported more trucks to export vegetable stocks to Kabul. Incredibly, the number of trucks that imported vegetables from Kabul were a fraction of those that were sent for exports.
This isn’t the first time the country has faced a shortage of essential commodities during the present government.It seems that there are no checks and balances on part of the Commerce Ministry and the Ministry in charge of Food & Security.
Perhaps if the Federal government devoted more time to matters at home than to put all its time and resources defending a disqualified ex-PM, such a situation would not have come to pass in the first place.We hope that this situation is resolved soon before it snowballs into a much bigger crisis in the days ahead.
