Prices of essential food items, fruits and vegetables increased substantially during the last few days owing to the rise in oil prices and hoarding by stockiests as Eid-ul-fiter is fast approaching, revealed a survey conducted by Business Recorder here on Friday.
There are apprehensions that in the next few days prices of essential commodities may surge further in the retail and wholesale markets of the city, market sources revealed. The hoarders and profiteers became active as Eid is coming nearer and prices of essential commodities witnessed a sharp increase last week.
Wholesalers and retailers defend themselves by stating that as the prices of everything is going up; including electricity, oil and transportation, therefore rising prices was inevitable. At majority of the retail outlets of the city sugar was available at Rs 85 per kg, which is higher compared to its previous rate of Rs 75 per kg.
Prices of fruits and vegetable remained all time high. Bananas were available at Rs 120 per dozen against its previous price of Rs 100; mango was available at Rs 90 per kg compared to Rs 70 last week. Similarly apple was available at Rs 120 compared to its previous price Rs 100 per kg and guava at Rs 90 per kg against its previous price of Rs 70.
Price of tomato went up from Rs 60 per kg to Rs 80 during last week. Price of onion registered an increase of Rs 10 per kg and sold at Rs 50 per kg in contrast to last week's price of Rs 40 per kg. Similarly price of potato registered an increase of Rs 13 per kg and reached Rs 45 per kg in contrast to last week's total of Rs 32 per kg.
Similarly, chicken price has increased from Rs 130 to Rs 150 per kg, while prices of ghee and cooking oil continued to rise and registered an increase of increase of Rs 10 per kg as compared to last week. People from all walks of life expressed serious concerns over the price hike in the kitchen commodities. They criticised the government for failing to provide relief to the poor masses and to keep check on price hike.
They said that the government has given a free hand to the profiteers. Waqas Ahmad, a resident of Abpara market said that hoarding by traders is the main reason behind the recent hike in prices while the government has miserably failed in controlling the illegal activity.