Prices of vegetables shoot up in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi: The prices of vegetables have jumped up to alarming proportion in past few days while the government machinery has failed to check the rising prices thus allowing profiteers and hoarders to fleece consumers with both hands.
There seems to be no check on the practice and traders are selling tomatoes, onions and garlic at exorbitant prices.
During past few days, the tomato price jumped from Rs40 per kg to Rs80 per kg while that of onion increased from Rs30 to Rs60 per kg. Similarly, the garlic price jumped from Rs120 to Rs200 per kilogram.
The traders attributed the rising trend in the prices of vegetables to their short supply in the market.
Talking to ‘The News,’ Nadeem Khan, a dealer in the Sabzimandi, said tomato, onion and garlic was selling at skyrocketing rates. He admitted that retailers were selling the product at higher prices after getting it on low prices. He also said that due to rains in the city, the tomato crop was not ripe and the dealers were selling the available stocks. He said the prices would come down within a few days.
Another dealer Basharat Shaikh said there was a big gap between demand and supply and thus the prices of these items were increasing with each passing day. He said transportation and production charges had also increased in the country, adding the government was not giving any incentive to farmers and wholesalers.