Tag: tomatoes

  • Weekly inflation based on SPI, records a slight decline

    Weekly inflation based on SPI, records a slight decline

    Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed that the weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the joint consumption group fell 0.26 per cent for the week ending May 26, owing primarily to a drop in the prices of vital food products.

    The consolidated index was 174.62 on May 19, 2022, compared to 175.08 on May 19, 2021, while the SPI increased 16.97 per cent year on year when the index was 149.29 on May 27, 2021.

    The minor price reductions in essential items may be a sign that the government is finally gaining control of the country’s skyrocketing inflation, which has afflicted the poor strata.

    Here are the items that witnessed a decrease or increase in their prices:

    Decrement

    Wheat Flour (12.25 per cent), Chillies Powdered (6.48 per cent), Chicken (4.41 per cent), Garlic (2.99 per cent), and non-food item LPG (0.43 per cent) were among the commodities that saw a decline in their rates on a WoW premise out of the 51 supervised items, with a cumulative effect of (-1.00 per cent) into the total SPI for the blended group of goods (-0.26 per cent).

    Increment

    27 items elevated in the week, including potatoes (8.43 per cent), tomatoes (6.33 per cent), eggs (6.29 per cent), rice basmati broken (4.71 per cent), mustard oil (4.16 per cent), pulse masaoor (3.93 per cent), milk fresh (3.47 per cent), onions (3.03 per cent), pulse gramme (2.58 per cent), curd (2.35 per cent), washing soap (2.13 per cent), cooked beef (1.55 per cent), beef (1.42 per cent), pulse mash (1.33 per cent), cooked daal (1.24 per cent). While 19 commodities’ prices remained stable.

  • Sikhs bring Indian tomatoes for Kartarpur Gurdwara langar

    Sikhs bring Indian tomatoes for Kartarpur Gurdwara langar

    Sikhs visiting the Data Sahib at the recently opened Kartarpur Corridor are bringing tomatoes from India as a gift for the langar khana which provides a free vegetarian meal to all visitors.

    According to reports, Sikh pilgrims coming to the Gurdwara from India brought bags of tomatoes as a present for the langar khana. Not only tomatoes, they also brought other vegetables for the community kitchen.

    A yatree Sardar Hari Chand said they brought tomatoes to the Gurdwara from India because they heard that the fruit was being sold at a very high price in Pakistan – tomatoes were being sold for Rs300 to Rs400 per kg in Narowal while in India tomatoes are available for only Rs20.

    Another pilgrim said: “We’ve heard the rates of vegetables are very high in Pakistan; while coming from Amritsar, we also brought ginger, green chilli, garlic and onion.”

    Pilgrims said that they feel happy bringing food for the Gurdwara and that langar dishes are incomplete without tomatoes.

    Pilgrims shared that they feel happy when they contribute their share in the form of cash or anything, adding that no Sikh would like to visit anyone’s home without a gift, so how could they forget to bring something to their guru’s house.

  • Lottery winners get tomatoes

    Jamaat-e-Islami distributed tomatoes to women who won prizes through balloting.

    Women participating in a protest against inflation and rising prices said that in the past, they used to get sewing machines, Umrah tickets and committees (kitties) in such lotteries but due to the massive increase in tomato prices, this year the Jamaat-e-Islami has given them tomatoes as a prize.

  • Farmers hire armed guards to protect tomatoes from being stolen

    Farmers hire armed guards to protect tomatoes from being stolen

    The price of tomatoes has skyrocketed all over the country, including Karachi creating panic among the citizens considering how essential they are to Pakistani dishes.

    After tomato prices reached Rs250-300 per kg in Sindh, thieves have started robbing tomato farms in Sindh’s Badin district.

    This has made the farmers so paranoid that they have hired armed guards to protect their tomato farms.

    Tomatoes in Karachi were being sold as high as Rs320 per kilogram (kg), double the rate from the previous week. Vendors and hawkers claimed that it was not their fault since wholesale prices had increased.

    Read More: Hafeez Sheikh claims tomatoes being sold at Rs17 per Kg

    However, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Finance Adviser, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, was unaware of the ongoing situation. In a recent media talk, he claimed tomatoes were being sold as low as Rs17 a kilogram in vegetable markets of Karachi.

  • VIDEO: ‘Peas being sold for Rs5/kg,’ claims Imran govt

    VIDEO: ‘Peas being sold for Rs5/kg,’ claims Imran govt

    As rising vegetable prices spell misery for people under the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has claimed that peas are being sold in the market for only Rs5 per kilogram (kg).

    “Another grower, [Federal Minister for Aviation] Ghulam Sarwar Khan Sahab has told [me] that 20kg pea bags are being sold at the rate of Rs5/kg,” she said while addressing a press conference.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    Statement from PM Imran Khan’s aide, who seems to be totally unaware of the persisting sky-high vegetable prices in the country, made headlines a day after the premier’s finance adviser, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, told reporters that tomatoes were being sold for as low as Rs17 per kg across Karachi.

    “In Karachi, in the sabzi mandi (produce market), tomatoes are being sold for Rs17 per kg”.

    When some of the reporters present at the scene told him that tomatoes were, in fact, being sold at Rs240 per kg, he refuted saying “people were lying”.

    “That’s what is being run on the television,” Imran’s adviser noted, to which one of the reporters said, “But on the TV, it says tomatoes are being sold for Rs240 a kg.”

    Another journalist responded with a fresh personal story, “Sir, I myself bought tomatoes for Rs300 a kg.”

    “Oh but I am agreeing that prices of many commodities need to be controlled. Agriculture [industry] has seasonality,” the PM’s adviser explained, as someone from behind persistently tried to stop the person holding the phone from recording the video.

  • ‘Naya Pakistan’: Tomatoes beat dollar as price jumps to Rs320/kg

    ‘Naya Pakistan’: Tomatoes beat dollar as price jumps to Rs320/kg

    Tomato prices have jumped to Rs320 a kilogram (kg) under the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, sending a shockwave to consumers with a massive jump from Rs160 per kg within a week.

    “Only two consumers bought half a kg of tomato each out of 12 to 15 customers as most of them purchased 250 grams because of the high rates,” Dawn quoted a Karachi-based vendor as saying.

    He reportedly blamed the hike on the soaring wholesale rate of tomato to Rs260-270/kg from Rs120-140 last Friday.

    According to the report, the vendor was of the view that the arrival of tomato from Quetta and Swat had slowed down drastically because of the winter wave that has affected tomato crop.

    The city government had quoted Saturday’s consumer price of Rs199 per kg for tomato which was Rs147 on Friday. However, neither tomato nor any other such items were available at official rates in the city.

    Yet there is some stability in the prices of other vegetables such as capsicum, whose price dropped to Rs240 from Rs280-320 per kg of last week.

    Falahi Anjuman Wholesale Vegetable Market New Sabzi Mandi President Haji Shahjehan said the arrival of Iranian tomato had also come to a halt followed by the slow arrival of Balochistan crop.

    While disagreeing with Rs276-270 per kg wholesale rate at the mandi, he said vegetable dealers quoted very high wholesale rates to justify their retail price as tomato’s actual wholesale rate on Saturday was Rs220 per kg.