Consumers are facing problem in getting sugar as scarcity of the sweetener persists in retail markets of Karachi amid its short supply from mills, traders complained on Monday.
Moreover, they claimed that the police had seized some trucks loaded with sugar bags at the exit points of the city which were destined to the upcountry, while several trucks were allegedly barred from unloading sugar into wholesale market and were taken to some unknown places.
Those retailers who had sugar stocks were selling the commodity between Rs 60 and Rs 70 per kg, a retailer said. Talking to Business Recorder, Chairman of the Karachi Wholesalers Grocers Association (KWGA), Anis Majeed, said the Sindh government despite promises had not yet supplied a single grain of sugar to wholesale market. He claimed that the mills had also held back the supply of the commodity due to which local markets had run out of stocks.
He said sugar crisis continued to persist in wholesale market, and resultantly destabilising retail markets. However, he said this situation would come to an end after the fresh arrival of the commodity on revised rates. While traders questioned the qualification for the nomination of some retailers and wholesalers to directly receive sugar from the government.
"There are 1,200 wholesalers in the city and of them only 116 belong to Jodia Bazaar, while the rest do not have any affiliation with the Bazaar association, then how could the government ignore a majority of traders in supply of sugar," they said. From Karachi, 20 wholesalers and 50 retailers had been nominated to receive 30 percent of sugar quota at Rs 40 per kg from the government, they said, while expressing scepticism over this mechanism.
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