The price tomato touches record high of Rs 400 per kg in Karachi.
KARACHI: (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News-Nov 20th, 2019) Exposing government's control over price hike, the traders in Karachi have been selling Swati and Sindhi tomatos at the rate of Iranian tomatos by hitting a record high by reaching Rs400 per kg here on Tuesday.
According to the details, the price of per kilogram Tomato was at Rs 300 to Rs. 320 and from Rs 320 to Rs 400. The government was revising the price upward as the official retail rate of tamato was Rs 117 per kilogram but the local government claimed that retail rate of Rs 253 per kilogram compared to Rs.
193 per kilogram on Monday. The changing prices show that the government itself was revising the prices.
Hoarders and other traders brought the price of Swat and Sindh crop equal to the pirce of Iranian rate to make huge money.
Last week, the farmers have deployed guards to save thier tomato fields from the possible theft in Badin district of Sindh.
The farmers restored to this plan after the frequent incidents of tomatos' theft in their area and their high prices in the country.
Badin is one of the districts of Sindh province that exports tomatos in large quantity to the entire country
The price of tomato hit a record high in Karachi on Tuesday and reached Rs400 per kilogram from Rs300-320 per kg on Monday.
In the absence of any landed price of the Iranian tomato, greedy traders also brought the price of Swat and Sindh crop at par with the Iranian tomato rate to make huge profits.
But the local administration, like its past practice, quoted an unrealistic retail rate of Rs253 per kg compared to Rs193 per kg on Monday.
In the first week of November, the official retail rate of tomato was Rs117 per kg and Tuesday’s official price clearly indicated that the government itself was revising the price upward.
There are hardly any traders selling tomato at the control rate.
A representative of wholesalers asks citizens not to buy tomato to break monopoly of a few traders
Traders said a box containing 13-14 kg of tomato was available at Rs4,200-4,500 depending on the quality, thus forcing many traders to suspend purchasing.
The government had last week issued a permit for importing 4,500 tonnes of tomato from Iran, but the arrival of the red fruit had yet to pick up pace in the market, resulting in a persistent hike in the rates in view of rising demand.
Of the 4,500 tonnes, only 989 tonnes had arrived in the country so far, a trader said, adding that he could not confirm whether more quantities arrived at the Taftan border on Tuesday.
