KARACHI, Nov 1: Consumers paid higher prices to buy onion, tomato and poultry items in the last one month as compared to other edible items whose prices remained either stable or fallen because of fixing of prices by the city government for Ramazan.
A monthly price survey (from October 1 to November 1) revealed that onion was being sold at Rs14-15 per kg as compared to Rs9-12 per kg owing to start of new Sindh crop and end of Balochistan crop. Its wholesale price had reached to Rs10-12 per kg from Rs7.5-8 last month.
Onion prices may remain under pressure as a sizable quantity is being exported to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Middle East and Colombo as a result of late start of crop sowing in India. Some 400-500 containers are being sent to these markets every week.
The two-day strike by meat merchants and change in weather have pushed up demand for poultry live bird. Dealers fully utilized the situation by raising prices to Rs64 per kg from Rs60, while its meat price also went up to Rs110 per kg from Rs100-102. Egg also became costlier to Rs31 per dozen from Rs29.
Tomato prices (quality No.1 and No.2) were hovering between Rs24 and Rs34 per kg as compared to Rs15 and Rs20 per kg. Many dealers were demanding Rs40 per kg for tomato. Improved supply from new Sindh crop in coming weeks may help in stabilizing the prices of tomato.
Arhar pulse turned out to be an exception whose price jumped to Rs33-36 per kg from Rs28-30. Its wholesale price also showed an increase to Rs31-34 per kg from Rs22-25.
No major upward rally was seen in the prices of other essential items. Prices had either come down or remained pegged to their last month’s level due to announcement of rates by the city government.
Sugar prices depicted no change and remained at Rs20 per kg. Wholesale price of flour started moving up ahead of Ramazan, but the government had fixed the rate of atta No.2.5 at Rs10.50 per kg as compared to Rs11-12 per kg a month back. The Sindh government has skipped the fixing of fine atta price in the price list since it has decided that only one brand will be available.
In pulses, gram pulse No.1 quality prices dropped to Rs23 per kg from Rs26. Price of moong (washed and whole) registered a drop to Rs22-25 per kg from Rs28-30. Price of mash also posted a drop to Rs20-25 per kg from Rs24-28. No change was seen in masoor (whole and washed) price at Rs30-34 per kg in view of no fluctuation in its wholesale price.
Ginger and garlic prices registered no change at Rs40 per kg from Rs32-35 per kg last month.
Dealers continued to charge last month’s rate of Rs8 per kg for potato despite its official rate of Rs7 per kg fixed by the government.
The markets saw no change in prices of various varieties of rice. The retail price of Irri-9 was still intact at Rs18 per kg. Kernal Basmati No.1 and No.2 qualities are tagged at Rs32 and Rs30 per kg. Basmati No.1, No.2 and No.3 qualities are priced at Rs28, Rs26 and Rs24 per kg, respectively. Basmati Sela No.1 and No.2 qualities are tagged at Rs26 and Rs28 per kg. Basmati Tota No.1 and No.2 are selling at Rs17 and Rs19 per kg.
Dealers of fruits are bent upon charging higher rates of guava at Rs35-40 per kg from the actual government’s price of Rs28 per kg.
