KARACHI: Wholesalers at Dandia Bazaar fear shortage of essential items and increase in prices as container trailers and trucks loaded with goods have been barred from entering the city after 11pm.

“We have taken up the matter with Chief Secretary Sindh and Commissioner Karachi on Friday asking them to take notice of the situation otherwise the city will face shortage of essential items coupled with a surge in prices,” Karachi Wholesalers Grocers Association (KWGA) Chairman Anis Majeed said on Saturday.

He urged the authorities not to stop container trailers and trucks loaded with essential goods.

He said the wholesale market has already started facing shortage of sugar due to suspension in arrival from interior Sindh.

As Ramazan is starting from fourth week of May, retailers have started lifting goods in view of soaring demand of goods, he added. He asked the Chief Secretary Sindh to sort out the problem of allowing containers into the city after 11 pm.

He said Dandia Bazaar is the hub of essential commodities like wheat, flour, sugar, pulses, rice, and other essential items which arrive from various parts of the country especially Sindh and Punjab. Besides, imported essential goods also arrive from the port in the wholesale market.

Depending on the crop season, around 50-100 big trucks arrive daily in Dandia Bazaar from various of the country carrying various goods like wheat, rice, flour, sugar, etc. He said the average price of one tonne of goods is estimated at $500.

Import of pulses in July-Feb 2016-17 swelled by 50 per cent to $599 million (781,126 tonnes) as compared to $400m (637,357 tonnes) in the same period last fiscal, figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed. Besides, supplies from local crops also meet the country’s demand.

Sugar production in Pakistan witnessed 24 per cent growth to 4.4m tonnes in July-Feb 2016-17 as compared to 3.52m tonnes in same period last fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2017