LAHORE, Oct 31: Low yield, high transportation cost and extra demand created by Ramazan have abnormally hiked prices of fruit this year.

Market watchers say that apple, pomegranate, guavas and grape crops did not have high yield this year which created pressure on the price.

Exceptionally high prices of petroleum products have resulted in very high transportation cost. At present, most of the fruit is coming from Afghanistan, thus keeping prices abnormally high. The month of Ramazan has generated additional demand.

“At present, Pakistan has exhausted almost the entire crops of its own and is now importing from Afghanistan,” says Sarwar Shah of Ravi Road fruit market. Major supplies of pomegranate and apple are coming from Afghanistan. The quick consumption of fruit crop shows how much low yield the domestic crop had. Low yield kept the fruit prices high from the beginning of the season, he said.

Mr Abid of the same market maintains that fruit supplies are now coming from Afghanistan at a high price. A truckload of 100 quintile of any fruit costs around Rs35,000. One can imagine how much transportation cost is included in the cost of fruit. At present, around 25 per cent cost of transportation is being passed on to consumers. Even those fruits coming from within Pakistan are being transported at a very high price. It costs Rs25,000 to bring a truckload of fruits from Quetta against Rs17,000 last year, he said. Naturally, consumers are made to foot the bill.

It is not only the cost of transportation, but all allied costs have also gone up abnormally, he said. Loading and unloading cost has also doubled. It used to cost Re1 last year, and now Rs2. Electricity bills are another factor and so is salaries of staff of big traders. All these charges contribute to price hike, he said.

“Arrival of Ramazan always creates additional demand but this year has proven to be exceptional,” says Zaheer Khan. Because of lack of domestic supplies, the price suddenly shot up and did not come down due to a host of factors, both perceptional and actual. Besides transportation and other costs, lack of official control has also contributed to price hike, he said.

There is no relation between market and retail prices. Retailers earn so high a profit and no one checks them, Mr Khan said. The powers of magistracy have been withdrawn from the district governments under the devolution plan, setting the retailers free. No one knows what someone is charging and why?

He said retailers ask for almost 50 per cent more of the market price and then come down around 20 per cent, still charging over 30 per cent profit. This is a normal situation. In any abnormality, the situation worsens very quickly and the present one is an abnormal situation, he said.

“Inflation is running in double digits for the last three years,” says a market analyst from the Kot Lakhpat fruit market. By that yardstick, fruit price is only matching inflation cost. The apple now being sold at Rs50 per kg used to cost Rs40 last year. The government needs to control over-heated economy which is still on fire due to reasons much beyond the control of managers of fruit market, he said.

The entire nation is paying the cost of government policies and rise in international prices of petrol, the fruit prices are only reflecting the trend, he said.