ISLAMABAD, April 9: The suspension of palm oil supply from Karachi to the upcountry due to a row between ghee industry and truck owners is setting a stage for a crisis of edible oil in the coming days.

More than 5,000 tons of palm oil is lying at Karachi ports for the last five days due to non-availability of transportation to lift shipments for processing at factories.

Former chairman of Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) Sh Amjad Rashid told Dawn on telephone from Karachi that on the directive of the prime minister a meeting, to be attended by Sindh industry secretary Rasool Buksh, representatives of PVMA, National Logistic Cell (NLC) and tankers association, would be held in Karachi on Thursday to sort out the issue.

A letter, sent to Federal Food Committee (FFC) Chairman Farooq Ahmed and released here to the media by the PVMA, said that the chaos created by the private transporters had resulted in the closure of half of the ghee units.

“If the situation remained such it could result in total closure of vegetable ghee/cooking oil factories in a week,” the letter warned. It informed the FFC that private tanker-owners were not allowing the ghee industry and the NLC to lift palm oil shipments from the ports.

Sh Amjad said that the ghee industry wants to get rid of the monopoly of private transporters. “We want to give 20 per cent share of the total edible oil transportation to the NLC fleet,” he added.

The private transporters were demanding increase in transportation charges on the back of higher than expected inflation, mainly because of increase in oil prices, which was not acceptable to the association.

On the other hand, the factory owners were constantly increasing the prices of their end products by linking them with increase in palm oil price in the international market.

PVMA Secretary Zafar Hameed Hashmi in a statement said the current situation could lead to shortage of vegetable ghee/cooking oil in the market besides hike in prices. He demanded that relevant law-enforcing agencies should be instructed to take appropriate measures to control the situation and avert any untoward accident.

The PVMA member units were getting untreated oil transported from Karachi port to their manufacturing facilities by the tankers of carriage contractors and tanker associations. However, for streamlining the transportation of raw oil the PVMA had entered into an agreement with the NLC.

He said that the NLC could ensure supply line intact. However, as NLC is not fully equipped to transport all shipments from Karachi to upcountry, major share was still with the private tanker owners, he said.

Mr Hashmi said that the private carriage owners considered the new arrangement a threat to business and disrupted transportation of oil by NLC from Port Qasim.