LAHORE: Increase in tomato prices over the past month and a half has cost citizens upward of Rs 150 million, according to a local media outlet.
The shortage came about as a result of the government’s restrictions on the import of tomatoes from India. However, the tomatoes from India continue to find their way into Pakistan by way of Kashmir, Afghanistan and Iran.
Questions arise surrounding the boycott on import of tomatoes from India, when according to statistical reports, large amounts of cotton, red pepper, cardamom and cumin are being imported regularly across the Wagha border.
Moreover, criticism has been extended towards the Punjab Agriculture Department and Federal Ministry of Food Security on their alleged ban on the import of tomatoes from India, while traders have been making huge profits out of the very same tomatoes by importing them through Kashmir, Afghanistan and Iran.
The shortage of tomatoes, which began before Eidul Azha in August, had already cost almost Rs 200 per kilogramme by Friday over what citizens pay normally, amid government’s continuous promises of improving the situation.
The fruit, which usually sells for between Rs 25 and Rs 35 per kilo, has been facing a shortage of up to half its demand and therefore selling for over Rs 200. Should the same tomato be imported directly through Wagha border, instead of taking the much longer route of coming in through the west, its prices will drop drastically down to almost Rs 30 per kilo, as several citizens lament.