KARACHI: Prices of vegetables, specifically spices and those used in cooking to give flavour to food, has increased by a huge margin just a couple of days before Eid. In the absence of a proper price list, vendors are citing prices of their own choice, it emerged on Sunday.

In the Burnes Road vegetable market, vendors are selling garlic and ginger at Rs350 and Rs400 kilograms, respectively.

Tomatoes, which a few days ago were selling at Rs50 are now being sold at Rs80 per kilo.

A grocer claimed that the prices were “still reasonable, as tomatoes are usually sold at Rs120 before Eid”.

Apart from that, the prices of onions and potatoes remained stable, Rs30 and Rs35, respectively.

Mohammad Asif, a vendor at the Burnes Road market, blames the wholesale market (Sabzi Mandi) for selling ‘overpriced’ vegetables.

“There’s no bargaining with them,” says Kashif, who runs a stall along with his father Abdul Wahab for the past 20 years. “They ask us to either buy the vegetables or leave. As a result, we increase the price to cover our cost,” he added.

In the Bhimpura market, where most of the vegetables come from Sabzi Mandi, which then make their way to Lea Market, the vendors gave contradictory answers about the price hike.

Although one of them said that the prices had remained the same since the month of Ramazan, Mohammad Danish Ayub, a vendor next to him, said “prices increased within the past few days by the vendors themselves, as the market will remain closed for the next three days”.

Explaining, Mr Danish said that right from the wholesale market till reaching the downtown, the vendor, loader and driver also charged their share which was “ten times higher than what we usually pay them”.

Rehana Yaqoob, a resident of Bhimpura, does not accept the excuse and says that “from Ramazan till Eidul Azha, the prices of vegetables and spices are keep increasing with no check by the authorities concerned at all”.

At the moment, the commissioner’s office regulates the prices. The spokesperson for the commissioner’s office could not be reached when contacted.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2016