Daily Times

KARACHI: Work on a new chilli market in Kunri, Sindh, has not been completed despite a lapse of more than six years. The market project is incomplete so far due to the gross corruption of the contractor in connivance with the officials of the building department officials of Mirpur Khas.

A technical inquiry into a delay in completion of the market is now under way, said market leaders and exporters.

The completion of this market could have provided ample opportunities to the local chilli growers and traders to flourish, but it was not completed. The growers said the chilli crop was being grown over 201,000 acres in the area where this market was located. They said that huge chilli stocks were rotting due to the incomplete chilli market. As a result, they said, chilli farmers and traders were suffering huge losses.

They said that chilli prices, which ranged between Rs5,400 and Rs5,500 per 40 kilogramme, had come down to Rs900 to Rs1,000 per 40 kilogramme due to the poor quality of the commodity this year.

The stakeholders would soon present a detailed report on the chilli crop and the current market situation to the food ministry so that appropriate steps are taken to save the growers and traders of this important commodity.

The Sindh agriculture secretary and stakeholders also discussed problems being faced by the people doing the chilli business in terms of storage, production, export and protection of the crop against the disease.

A laboratory would be set up at Kunri to test samples of chillies. Aflatoxin, a carcinogen, affects the chilli export.

Low stocks of quality chilli pushed the prices too high and both wholesale and retail businessmen are suffering financial losses.

Chillies are one of the largest traded spices in the international market. The total current production of red chillies in Pakistan is more than 93,000 tonnes. In Sindh, chillies are grown on an area of 39,000 hectares with a production of 54,900 tonnes. The average yield of 1.8 tonnes per hectare accounts for 1.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The federal government once planned a Red Chillies Processing Plant at Kunri in the Umerkot District of Sindh with an estimated cost of Rs193 million, but no progress was made on this project later. The Ministry of Industries and Production was sponsor of the project and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) was the executing agency for this scheme.

“Poor government policies are hurting the export potential of the country. The delay in establishment of the chilli processing plant at Kunri has caused a millions of dollars loss to exporters,” said senior member of Sindh Agriculture Forum Shakeel Ahmad.

A member of the Red Chilli Market Association, Kunri, said that Umerkot, Sanghar, Mirpur Khas and Badin were major areas where red chilli was being grown, but people were facing problems due to unavailability of agriculture loans.