Vegetable, fruit prices up by 15 to 20pc last week


LAHORE: Prices of flour, pulses, ghee and fruit and vegetables witnessed an exorbitant increase in retail markets here. It seemed that government's price control machinery was absent as vendors were looting customers in broad daylight, The Post observed.

On the other hands, high oil price was another reason for increase in the prices of vegetables and fruits.

The short supply of farm goods in the city caused a sharp rise in their prices. The prices of vegetables and fruits increased by 15 to 20 percent during last week.

Tomato rose by Rs 4 per kg, onion by Rs 3, ladyfinger by Rs 4, bitter-gourd by Rs 3, brinjal by Rs 2 and lemon by Rs 3 per kg.

Fruit rates also moved up due to short supply as the prices of banana increased from Rs 50 to 70 per dozen, good quality kinno from Rs 100 to 150 per kg, melon from Rs 30 to Rs 50, strawberry from Rs 80 to 100 per kg and watermelon from Rs 10 to 15 per kg.

During the last week the price of onion increased from Rs 12 to Rs 18, tomato from Rs 20 to Rs 24, potato from Rs 16 to Rs 20, bitter-gourd from Rs 20 to Rs 35, brinjal from Rs 24 to Rs 32, ladyfinger from Rs 20 to Rs 24 and lemons from Rs 80 to 110 per kg.

Current surging trend in various essential kitchen items also reflects the poor strategy of the government in handling the situation. It seems as if there is no policy to control the prices of essential items.

The government also has not made available food storage houses due to which large volumes of perishable goods are at great risk at fruit markets. It also reflects that there is no check and balance on the rates of essential commodities by the government and the price control authorities.

Maqsood, a vendor claimed that the quality of the Indian onion was very poor and did not provide reasonable profit to sellers. To make profit, he added, the commodity had to be sold at little more margin of profit.

Total supply of onion in the city markets was 20 trucks on Wednesday last as compared to previous supply of 24 trucks on Tuesday last week.

Akber, another vendor informed The Post that tomato reached the city from northern parts of the province. Since the transportation cost of tomato from those areas, he said, was very high and not affordable by poor farmers that was why the tomato was in short supply. Hence there is an increase in its prices. He maintained that the prices of tomato were already high and with the new situation of short supply, tomato price in the market was bound to rise further.

Manzoor Ahmed, a buyer, told The Post that uncontrolled inflation during the last few years was also one reason for higher prices of the essential commodities.

The price of chicken meat was settled at Rs 121 per kilogram, while it was being sold at Rs 123 to Rs 125 per kilogram. The rates of eggs decreased by Rs 5 and settled at Rs 46 to Rs 48 per dozen at the retail level. On the other hands, the rates of essential kitchen items including flour, rice, pulses and ghee also showed similar trend in the wholesale and retail markets amidst fresh buying.

The price of 20-kilogram flour bag ranged from Rs 380 to Rs 420 and 10-kilogram flour bags was sold at Rs 215 to Rs 220 per bag.

The price of good quality Basmati rice (old) ranged from Rs 90 to Rs 95 per kilogram. Similarly, the prices of low quality rice ranged from Rs 65 to Rs 80 per kilogram. Broken rice was Rs 50 to Rs 60 per kilogram.

Various varieties of gram pulse were sold at Rs 60 to 65 per kilogram, while masoor pulse was available at Rs 80 to 90 per kilogram and lentil pulse was available at Rs 85 to Rs 100 per kilogram.

The price of A-category 16 kilogram ghee tin settled at Rs 1,965. The rates of B-category 16 kilogram ghee tin was Rs 1,895, while C-category 16 kilogram ghee tin was available at Rs 1,810.

The price of sugar in the wholesale market remained stable to settle at Rs 2,570 per 100-kilogram sack.

The ex-factory rate of 100-kilogram sugar sack also remained stable to close at Rs 2,560 per 100 kilogram bag. In the retail markets sugar prices were also stable at Rs 26 to Rs 27 per kilogram.

vegetable and fruit doesnt come in roti kapra makaan


SPEEDY
enjoy

‘Silent tsunami’ upsets family life across Asia


SYDNEY, May 11: From the rice paddies of Asia to the wheat fields of Australia, the soaring price of food is breaking the budgets of the poor and raising the spectres of hunger and unrest, experts warn.

A billion people in Asia are seriously affected by the surging costs of daily staples such as rice and bread, the director-general of the Asian Development Bank, Rajat Nag, has said.

“This includes roughly about 600 million people who live on just under a dollar a day, which is the definition of poverty, and another 400 million who are just above that borderline,” he said.

Globally, the World Bank last month estimated that 33 countries were threatened with political and social unrest because of the skyrocketing costs of food and energy.

Across Asia, workers made a campaign against high food prices their May Day battle cry in marches through cities, including the capitals of Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

While the demonstrations were mainly peaceful, concern is growing over the potential for political instability and unrest if high prices persist.

“Once people get hungry they start also getting quite desperate and take desperate measures,” Damien Kingsbury of Australia’s Deakin University told AFP.

Experts blame the high food prices on a confluence of factors, including increased demand from a changing diet in Asia, droughts, the rising use of crops for biofuels, and growing energy and fertiliser costs.

In Australia, which usually ranks second after the United States as a global wheat exporter, several years of drought cut harvests to just 13 million tons last year from an average of 22 million tons.

So while consumers are struggling, Australian farmers are not getting rich on the backs of the poor, said National Farmers Federation chief executive Ben Fargher.

“It’s been the worst drought in our history and many, many farming families are under significant financial and emotional stress and it will take our communities a long time to recover,” he said.

And even in a relatively prosperous country like Australia, people are feeling the squeeze in the supermarkets, prompting the government to launch an inquiry into how to stem rising grocery prices.

Around the rest of the region, the impact varies from traumatic to minimal:

Afghanistan: Millions of Afghans are finding it “problematic” to meet their basic food needs with prices of the staple wheat doubling in some areas over recent months, the World Food Programme has said.

Bangladesh: One of the world’s poorest nations, Bangladesh has been hit by a doubling in the price of the main staple, rice, in the past year and many low-paid workers say they have been forced to make do on only one meal a day.

Last month about 20,000 garment workers rioted near Dhaka for higher wages to cover food prices.

China: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a meeting of the State Council last month that high prices were the biggest problem in the domestic economy.

“The inflation is led by food price rises, which especially hurt the poor,”said Ma Qing, a Beijing-based analyst.

India: A general strike against spiralling food prices paralysed Kolkata on April 21 as thousands of policemen were deployed across the West Bengal state to stop protests turning violent.

New Delhi has already slashed food duties and banned exports of lentils and other staples, and will not hesitate to further “sacrifice revenues to control prices,” Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

Indonesia: Anger over rising food prices was a focus for some 10,000 Indonesians who took to the streets of Jakarta for Labour Day rallies.

Japan: In resource-poor Japan, which relies on imports for 60 per cent of its food, companies have hiked prices on everything from beer to beef, mayonnaise and “miso” paste made from fermented soybeans in recent months.

Malaysia: Resentment over rising prices was a major factor in March elections which saw the ruling coalition lose a third of parliamentary seats and five states in its worst results in half a century.

Nepal: Nepal last week banned the export of grains as prices soared.

“There is a high possibility of food crisis in a poor country like ours where domestic production is not enough,” said Hari Dahal, a spokesman at the ministry of agriculture.

North Korea: North Korea’s food crisis has already seen some people starve to death in remote rural towns, according to an aid group which works in the impoverished communist nation, South Korea’s Good Friends organisation.

Pakistan: Analysts say public anger over food shortages, particularly wheat flour, was a factor in the defeat of President Pervez Musharraf’s allies in the February elections.

Singapore: Singapore is the wealthiest economy in Southeast Asia but charities say inflation is driving more people to join queues for free meals. Consumer price inflation reached 6.6 per cent in January-February, officials said.

Thailand: Export and domestic rice prices have risen about 50 per cent in a month. Some farmers have taken to arming themselves and staking out their fields at night to protect their precious crop from rice thieves.

In a phrase particularly chilling for Asia, the World Food Programme has described rising food prices as a “silent tsunami”.—AFP

This cannot be blamed on a Govt that has had power for just a few months, most of the world did not see this coming.

Sorry, its previous government's fault.

the blame is entirely on the US , their stupid and arrogant economic policy will put the world in starvation and disasters. to explain this further ...


the US always decrease its interest rates >> so that the $ price becomes less

when the $ price gets down >> the price of American products becomes more cheap (untill it reaches a limit where it becomes cheaper than Chinese products) , also the prices of everything produced in foreign countries will increase , especially crude oil and its products!

when the price of US products becomes more cheap >> the US exports will increase and the US will attract investments

when the US exports increase >> their GDP increase and avoids falling into arrest


but while all that happens .. all the people of the world will suffer from inflation and rising prices of food and everything

So whats wrong in that. Each country has it own targets and policies. If you think that they are affecting you, change your stance accordingly. Pakistan should also raise the price of wheat and rice that it exports to cover the rising costs. But, alas we don't have any balls left because we need to smuggle the crops to Afghanistan while poor people who grow the wheat die of hunger and kill their own children. These ministers eat buryani while the common man is being starved because the people they elected don't think for the good of the country ba$t@rd$