Daily Times

After nationwide floods caused massive crop damage, prices of vegetables have skyrocketed in Lahore with tomatoes costing as much as Rs500 per kilogram.

A private TV channel reported that shopkeepers have set arbitrary prices after the supply chain was disrupted by floods. Onion is being sold at Rs300 per kg and Limon at Rs400 per kg. The price for tomatoes is at least sixfold higher than the government rate of Rs80 per kilogram while the onion is being sold at five times the official rate of Rs61/kg. The prices of ginger and garlic have also gone up. “Now the poor man can only gaze at tomatoes and not buy them,” a buyer said. “Onion which was never sold above Rs100 a kg, is now being sold at Rs250 or Rs300,” he added. The shopkeepers have blamed staggeringly high prices on market forces, saying that they bought vegetables at high rates from the wholesale market.

Prices of various fruits & vegetables have massively surged across the northern Sindh and they are expected to increase further in the coming days due to short supply in markets and destruction of the crops by the floods in Sindh. The price of cauliflower, from Rs200 to 250 per kg these days. It was Rs100 per kg in the first week of August, said a vegetable vendor of local market. He added that per 5kg price of onion and tomato in the wholesale market (Mandi) crossed Rs 1,200 on Sunday.