Private transporters strike: mills facing edible oil shortage as fresh supply halted

Around 90,000 tons of edible oil is left in stocks of various ghee and oil manufacturing units of the country including Multan as the private sector transporters have stopped supply in protest against allowing National Logistic Cell (NLC) as an alternative transporter.
All Pakistan Oil and General Mills Association spokesman, Khawaja Muhammad Fazil said here on Tuesday that "the transporters are adamant on their demands and challenging the writ of Port Qasim Authority, that has failed to clear the blocked passage, besides they are also hindering the supply by the NLC." He said that NLC could only cater 25 to 30 percent of the total supply to the mills in the country and the private transporters' business will not be affected by NLC operation.
Fazil said that around 90,000 tons of edible oil is left in stocks of ghee and oil manufacturing units, which usually keep stocks for two or three days. "It is alarming that the mills in different parts of the country including Multan, Karachi, Lahore, Attar, Nowshera, Peshawar and Hyderabad are suffering the most."
He said that around 500 tankers are on strike and dozens of NLC tankers loaded with the edible oil are stranded at the port Qasim. Fazil said: "PVMA, in order to break the monopoly of the CBA of private sector transporters had agreed to involve NLC in transporting the edible oil. The business of private sector transporters is not affected by NLC but they wanted to keep their upper hand on mills."
Sheikh Ahsan Rasheed, a member of PVMA said due to non-co-operative and stubborn attitude of the private transporters' community, the mills would suffer production losses.
He urged upon the authorities concerned to take appropriate steps to avoid shortage of edible oil and ghee in the country. Rasheed said that transportation of edible oil from Karachi to Lahore and other parts of the country takes around seven days to reach at the mills. He said that industry is still suffering from the energy crisis and immediate solution of this crisis must be initiated on war footing.