KARACHI: Meat merchants have increased price of veal with and without bones and mutton by Rs50-100 per kilo following their practice of raising prices a month ahead of Ramazan, which is starting in the last week of April.

The new price quoted by beef merchants for veal with and without bones is Rs600 and Rs700 per kg as compared to Rs550 and Rs 650.

However, retailers at Burnes Road are selling veal meat without bone at Rs800 per kg as compared to Rs700-750 per kg rate of a few days back.

They are demanding Rs700 per kg for veal with bone as compared to Rs650 per kg rate of past few days.

Claim animals have to be purchased from outside Karachi due to closure of livestock markets in the wake of coronavirus crisis

The prices at Burnes Road usually remain higher than other city markets as it usually attracts consumers of upmarket areas who do not bother about price hike.

A number of retailers at Water Pump in Federal B Area pushed up mutton rate to Rs1,200 from Rs1,100 per kg citing increase in animal prices.

Beef retailers said they had made only Rs50 per kg increase in veal with and without bone rate.

In January 2019, veal meat with and without bones was available at Rs500 and Rs600 per kg while mutton was selling at Rs950-980 per kg.

Retailers said they had to purchase animals from different sources outside Karachi at higher rates due to closure of maweshi mandis at various venues to control presence of large number of people after coronavirus crisis.

Surprisingly, the commissioner of Karachi’s rate of veal with and without bones is Rs380 and Rs470 per kg respectively while the mutton rate is quoted at Rs740 per kg.

Every year, meat merchants jack up prices one month ahead of Ramazan and they give second price jerk just a few days ahead of Eidul Fitr, when people throng markets in higher numbers.

It should be mentioned that export of meat and meat preparations between July 2019 and Feb 2020 swelled to 57,023 tonnes ($211 million) from 37,719 tonnes ($138m) in same period of last fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2020