LAHORE: Though the month of Ramazan is inching towards its end, the prices of fruit and vegetables are not reducing unlike the past years. In fact, the prices of some of the horticultural commodities have spiked, at least in the Punjab capital.

Prices of fruit and vegetables like spinach, potato, brinjal, etc used for preparing pakoras are usually at their peak at the onset of Ramazan when everyone is ready to loosen strings of one’s purse to enjoy Iftar delicacies. But the rates drop when a majority of people consume their budgets in the first couple of weeks of the month of fasting. This year, however, the trend seems to have changed as the rates are still going up.

“Prices of fruits and vegetables used to come down during the last days of Ramazan and close to Eid. People like me, who cannot afford buying the fruit in the earlier days when demand for them is at its peak, are able to lay their hands on the ‘luxury’ food items during the last week of the month. But to my astonishment, rates of guava, banana and apple have gone up,” complains Kashif, who has come to Harbanspura Model Bazaar to get some fruit on Sunday.

Guava was available for Rs200 per kg around 10 days ago but its price has almost doubled while quality of the fruit at the vendors sitting outside the Bazaar is very poor while the product is nowhere seen in the market set up by the government, he says.

The official rate for good quality guava is Rs145 per kg. Similarly, the official rate for a good quality banana (120g per unit) is Rs180 per dozen but even lesser quality (or size) bananas are not available at this rate anywhere in the model bazaars or otherwise.

The case of vegetables is no exception as Abdur Razzaq, a customer at the Model Bazaar, bemoans poor administrative control on prices. The price of potato, which is in high demand during Ramazan, has registered around 65 percent increase as its rate has gone up from Rs50 per kg to Rs70 per kg within a week, whereas the official rate list says the vegetable can be sold at a maximum retail rate of Rs44 per kg. Lady-finger or okra is being sold at a rate between Rs120 and Rs130 per kg in the market, though the government prescribes its rate as Rs88 per kg.

An agriculture department official says that April and May are ‘dry months’ as far as production of local fruit is concerned as no fruit is domestically produced during this period. He says that imported or pre-mature fruits are being marketed at present.

“Apples from cold storage facilities are being sold, while banana and guava are being prematurely harvested. That’s why they are smaller in size as the both of them cannot be stored for a longer period of time,” he adds.

On the other hand, the unbridled price of chicken meat has hit the record peak of Rs407 per kg and the consumers wonder what is making the white meat price go skyrocketing.

Chicken price has been on the rise since the beginning of the year. Barring a one-time drop of Rs45 per kg in March, when the government announced banning mass functions and closure of restaurants in the wake of the third wave of coronavirus, it has been gradually on the increase.

The ban is still in place but the white meat rate is showing no let-up. Poultry farmers say that the demand-and-supply difference is playing a major role in the chicken price as around 30pc of bird farms are lying shut due to unavailability of labour and other problems caused by the Covid-19.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2021