KARACHI, Jan 9: Majority of branded ghee and cooking oil producers have taken back the consumer price off scheme, announced in Ramazan, thus bringing back the prices at old levels due to rising prices of soyabean and palm oil.
Other producers of ghee and cooking oil are in the process of removing the benefit scheme, some leading packers told Dawn on Wednesday.
Retailers of various areas said distributors of branded ghee and edible oil makers had already suspended the supplies to the markets so that the new packs could be marketed with new price tags.
The market will see full implementation of new prices in a week till the old stocks of Ramazan with reduced rates are exhausted by that time, various ghee packers said.
Consumers will now again pay Rs5 to Rs30 per 2.5 to five litres tins of ghee and cooking oil from next week, a leading packer of edible oil said.
Meanwhile, packers of 16 kg tins have also surged the prices. Kissan and Mezan 16 kg tins now cost Rs720 as compared to Rs680, while GCP Hilal is now being sold at Rs670 from Rs640, retailers said.
Market sources said that branded ghee producers were clever enough to fleece the consumers as they increased the prices just one-and-a-half month of Ramazan by Rs5 to Rs30 on 2.5 to five litres tins.
Just a week ahead of Ramazan, they announced price cuts on same levels just to appease the consumers for taking care of their grievances. And now they have again reverted the prices to pre-Ramazan levels.
The price of palm oil in the local markets have surged by Rs60 per ton in the last one week to Rs1,420-25 per 40 kg from Rs1,365 per 40 kg due to higher prices of palm oil in Malaysia. The FOB price of palm oil is now quoted at $337 per ton from $317 per ton on December 28 and $325 on January 4.
A palm oil importer said that Malaysian market closed higher due to good buying interest from China by around 2.4 million tons this year. Besides, stocks position in Malaysia is also not satisfactory followed by low production.
He said India and China has been active in buying palm oil since the last few months, while buying from Pakistan is on the decline.
A ghee producer said that the prices of soyabean oil, received from America as a foreign aid, is now being auctioned by Trading Corporation of Pakistan. Its price has also increased in the last two months. Price varies from auction to auction. The TCP has auctioned the oil at a little lower than Rs36,500 per ton and little higher than Rs 39,000 per ton, rising by Rs3,000 per ton. So far the TCP has sold around 30,000 tons out of 75,000 tons.
Market sources said that the rupee had gained 6.3 per cent against the dollar since September 11 events to December and the war risk levy, imposed by shipping companies, had been slashed drastically, but ghee packers did not pass on the benefits to the consumers in shape of price cuts.
Pakistan’s ghee and cooking oil industry has seen a constant growth for the last one-and-a-half year. Despite economic uncertainty, the demand for branded products in this category is on the rise. According to the State Bank’s annual report 2000- 2001, vegetable ghee production rose to 18.1 per cent from 15.5 per cent in 1999-2000, while in cooking oil, production surged to 16.2 per cent from 9.3 per cent in 1999-2000.
