An acute shortage of edible oil is looming in the country as the supply has been suspended from Karachi terminals for the last 9 days owing to the strike of private transporters. As the existing stock of raw materials, at various edible oil producing companies, has also come to a dead level, the price of existing vegetable oil, ghee and others is also likely to be increased by Rs15 to Rs20 per kg.
“If the supply remains suspended for another 24 hours, production of edible oil is feared to be halted completely causing an acute shortage of the highly consumed item,” sources in the wholesale and retail market told Profit. According to sources, supply of imported edible oil is being carried out by the private transporters and the National Logistics Cell (NLC) from Karachi terminal to Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But Edible Oil Tankers Owners Association (EOTOA) has suspended its operation on January 10 against the decision of Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) for supply of the oil through NLC while neglecting the agreement signed with private transporters.
As the commodity is now being supplied only through NLC the markets were not being supplied required oil as per the demand making a shortage of vegetable ghee/oil in the local market.
However, according to sources at PVMA, the association was free to decide how to supply edible oil to the country’s markets. The private transporters were not found reliable and up to the mark of the manufactures. The repeated complaints of oil theft and other issues have forced the association to supply the commodity through NLC. According to Bakhtawar Khan Chairman EOTOA, his association would continue to protest over the decision of PVMA and the supply of oil would remain suspended until their demands were met. The private transporters were also demanding a ban on NLC supply of edible oil.
It is worth mentioning here that the private tarn porters have stopped their tankers at National Highway. Almost 2,500 oil tankers are engaged in transportation of edible oil. According to a report the annual consumption of edible oil in Pakistan is around two million tonnes and its usage is 11-12 kg per person annually in Pakistan and 7-8 kg per person annually in India. Pakistan locally produces just half a million tonnes (450,000 tonnes from the cotton seeds and 50,000 tonnes from sunflower and mustard). The country is importing edible oil worth Rs300 billion annually to meet local demand. Talking about recent shortage of edible oil, Retail Grocers Group General Secretary Mohammad Fareed Qureshi said all smaller and cheaper brands of edible oil have disappeared from the market.
Oil tankers on strike: supply suspended from Karachi
