WEB DESK
The price of onions and tomatoes, which had increased after flash floods disrupted the supply, decreased by Rs100 and Rs120 respectively after imports from Iran and Afghanistan started reaching the vegetable market here, market sources said.
Over 50 trailers of tomatoes and 70 trailers of imported onions have reached the Karachi vegetable market, they added
Onions are being sold at Rs50/kg and tomatoes at Rs110/kg in the wholesale market.
The commerce ministry in a session last Tuesday decided to import onions and tomatoes from Afghanistan and Iran to control soaring prices of the commodities in the country after flooding damaged the crops in the country.
Similar updates were shared by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail during a press conference on Saturday.
“Half of the onion crop in Sindh also witnessed total destruction. As an initial step, we have suspended duty and taxes on import of onions and tomatoes,” he had said.
Import of onion from Afghanistan resulted in a reduction of its price in many parts of the country, he claimed.
“Sugar and ghee prices are also falling due to efforts of the current government. We will control inflation in the next two months,” Miftah vowed.
The finance czar had warned of an impending wheat crisis if Sindh did not start wheat farming by mid-October. “The biggest threat now is dry ground for wheat. By mid-October, Sindh should start farming for the wheat crop or else we will have a bleak spring and flour is going to get expensive,” he had warned during a discussion at the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi.
CM Murad Ali Shah has to drain inundated fields, he stressed. The government was expected to import $5 billion to $6 billion in oil seed this year which would be more than $2 billion than it did the previous year.
