LAHORE, July 21: The prices of fruits, vegetables and pluses registered a sharp increase on the first fasting day, but traders said the spike would normalise in the next few days when panic buying will subside and people’s attention will divert to clothes and other Eid necessities.

“First few days of the fasting month always put additional pressure on supplies,” says Hafiz Sadiq of Lahore Fruit Market. The suppliers, however, cannot respond to this extra demand for two reasons: perishable nature of horticulture products and high cost of transportation.

Both these factors deter storage of these items. The traders thus cannot cope with the additional pressure because they don’t have storage. Once shortages grip the market, the middleman goes berserk -- making huge money. These are precisely the conditions, but they should normalise in the next few days, he said.

“Grapes alone have seen their price increasing by almost Rs100 per kilogram, taking them above Rs300 per kg,” says Muhammad Amin. Similarly, apple has gone above Rs200 per kg. Grapes are in short supply and apple is imported because local production has not started. But both these issues would be resolved in the next 10 days.

The situation would remain precarious till then, he admitted and advised: “People need to avoid high cost fruits like grapes and apple and their prices would come down. On Saturday, a grape packet (of 12kg) was selling at Rs3,500. It was at Rs2,200 on Thursday. If traders go mad, people must act to bring them back to senses.”

The only relief on the first day was official package at Utility Stores, where the government had announced 10 top 15 per cent cut on most items – basin, ghee, sugar, flour, juices and squashes. Huge rush was seen at most of the utility stores in the city, where their management claimed that sales touched to a staggering figure of Rs300 million in one of the two zones of Lahore. Before Ramazan, the daily sale was around Rs30 million.

“This 10 times increase is because of fasting,” says one of the officer of the corporation. In the last few weeks, the corporation built up huge stocks and there was no supply problem.

The rush seen on the stores was because of massive number of customers, not because of supply problem, he insisted.

“Sugar, flour and basin are three main items being sold. All of them are Rs10 to Rs15 per kg less than the market. For the poor, it is a huge difference and can bring the bill down. If grocery is being purchased for the entire month, it is a relief of more than Rs1,000. Luckily, the corporation has huge stocks, and would not let down customers during the entire month,” he claimed.