Chilli, tomato now not wholesome options for consumers’ pocket
LAHORE: Prices of tomato and chilli have long gone up manifold within the city within the final couple of months.
Tomatoes were available on a mean rate of Rs24 in step with kg in the corresponding duration in the remaining 12 months but the vegetable fruit is being offered from Rs100 to Rs200 according to kg now.
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Similarly, the costs of green chilli hardly crossed Rs100 within the year 2018. Now, its prices have gone up within the closing one month to Rs400 in step with kg in the native marketplace.
The two greens, in particular green chilies, are seldom noticed on distributors’ carts.
The administration fined many distributors in Sunday Bazaars for now not bringing green chilies on the market at their stalls.
Yasin, who runs a vegetable store in a posh locality, passes the buck for skyrocketing prices of greens, together with tomato and green chilies, on to the auction machine in mandis (wholesale markets).
He said that in the absence of a price ceiling in the markets, arhtis or commission brokers and middlemen were free to promote the commodities at the rates of their very own selection without any let or hindrance, while deficient shops were forced by way of various government departments to promote the merchandize at fixed charges, even underneath than their acquire costs.
“How can we sell a thing bought at Rs100 per kg at Rs80 or even at the purchase price as we have to pay transportation charges, shop rent, electricity charges, etc? Don’t we have families to feed by earning some profit from our day long labour?” he questions.
An official of the agriculture department, which is answerable for ensuring supplies to Sunday bazaars, says that since Punjab does now not produce tomato and inexperienced chili plants presently of the 12 months, those are supplied from Sindh and Balochistan provinces and thus are sold at relatively prime rates right here.
Rain in the remaining four weeks damaged crops and cut off supply routes which led to an atypical building up within the costs, he added.
He said that the prices would no longer go unusually higher prior to now as a result of there was once the choice of uploading them from India via Wagah border. Since the imposition of non-tariff obstacles by either side, and tensions prevailing in the wake of India’s Balakot aggression, provides from India have change into a matter of the previous and the end-sufferer is the patron.
