KARACHI, Jan 1: The fear of an India-Pakistan war has not yet made any major impact in the market as buyers, retailers and wholesalers are undisturbed and have shown no signs of panic.
So far, no panic buying of essential commodities has been witnessed in the city.
Prices of essential commodities (from Dec 1 to 31) have either fallen or remained unchanged due to laggard market sentiments and thin presence of buyers, who are still skeptical that the ongoing war of words between the two countries will lead to a full-fledged war.
There was an increase only in the prices of egg and garlic. Egg rose to Rs35 a dozen from Rs33, followed by garlic to Rs56 a kg from Rs46 in the past one month. Prices of greens, fruits and essential commodities have either declined or remained pegged to their previous levels.
“There is virtually no panic buying and no stocking up by wholesalers as well as consumers,” the chairman of Karachi Wholesale Grocers Group, Anis Majeed, told Dawn.
“The market has at least more than one month’s stock in case of any contingency,” he said adding: “There is no shortage of any commodity.”
He said prices of lentils at the wholesale level had fallen by Re1 to Rs4 a kg after Ramazan, and it had been reflected at the retail level now.
A spokesman for the Karachi Retail Grocers Group said prices of imported lentils had dropped. He said buyers were not panicky, so they were not stocking up on essential commodities despite the rising tension at the borders.
Rupee has gained in value by 6.3 per cent against the US dollar since the Sept 11 events and subsequent crackdown on Hundi operators, making imports cheaper. Rupee has maintained its strength in spite of the looming war clouds. The gaining of strength by the rupee against the dollar has offset the impact of war risk levy by shipping lines on import and export.
The president of the Falahi Wholesale Vegetable Market, Super Highway, Haji Shahjehan, said trading at the Sabzimandi was normal and wholesalers had not built up any stocks because of the rising tension between India and Pakistan.
He said arrival of trucks, loaded with greens and fruits, had been normal, ranging between 450-500 trucks a day.
The full season of three main crops, such onion, potato and tomato, have kept prices under control so far. Wholesale price of onion has fallen to Rs4-5 a kg from Rs5-6, due to slow demand of our item in Colombo, as India is supplying onion at cheaper rates. There will be no shortage of onion till April and May.
In the local markets, retailers have not passed on the benefits of price cut to the consumers, selling onion at last month’s rate of Rs8 a kg.
Shahjehan said potato was arriving from Punjab’s new crop and it would end in April and May, but in March a sizable quantity would be kept in cold storages to meet demand till the new crop arrived in November.
Now its price ranges between Rs5-6 a kg and retailers charge last month’s rate of Rs9 a kg.
There is no change in the price of tomato, arriving from the Sindh crop, selling at Rs10 a kg. Its wholesale price ranges between Rs5-6 a kg. The Sindh crop will end in April and then the Punjab crop will begin arriving. Ginger is being sold at the old rate of Rs60-64 a kg.
In lentils, arhar