KARACHI: Chairman of National Business Group and President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum Mian Zahid Hussain has said after the flour, sugar and vegetable crisis, ghee and poultry crisis is engulfing the country.

The prices of ghee and cooking oil are increasing for which steps should be taken including administrative action and abolishing import duty on palm oil so that masses facing unprecedented inflation can get some relief, he said. Mian Zahid Hussain said that increasing prices of ghee and cooking oil should not be taken lightly as it is a matter of food security of 220 million Pakistanis who are already bleeding due to inflation.

He said that per capita consumption of cooking oil in Pakistan is already lower than the global average and its price in winter will add to the miseries of the masses. He said the price of poultry products is also increasing across the country which should be countered by abolishing import duty on soybean and import of cheap maize.

Last year mafia blackmailed farmers by buying maize of 50 percent lower rates burdening them with heavy debt after which many of the planters opted for rice and other crops resulting in shortage of maize in the country which has resulted in poultry price hike while mafia is also at play, he added. He said that middlemen and feed businesses made fortunes overnight by offering reduced prices for maize crops which was not noticed by authorities while farmers failed to recover the cost of sowing which is unfortunate.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan should take note of the situation, consider the support price for maize and take action against mafia.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020