Prices of food items begin to climb up further ahead of Ramazan.

KARACHI -- Prices of various items such as fresh, tetra and powdered milk, chicken, ghee and cooking oil have already started crawling up ahead of Ramazan, which begins in the second week of April.

Leading manufacturers of milk products have increased the price of a 250ml pack to Rs42 from Rs40 a few days back while they had already raised the price of one litre tetra milk to Rs160 from Rs155 from Jan 1, 2021.

A leading tea whitener maker had increased from Jan 1, 2021 the price of 375g and 900g tea whitener to Rs450 and Rs970 from Rs430 and Rs940, respectively. The same company had raised the price of a 250g pack tea whitener to Rs250 from Rs230 a few days back.

Fresh milk prices

Loose fresh milk stakeholders are flexing their muscles to give a price shock to the consumers in March. However, a number of shopkeepers in Karachi are charging Rs130 per litre instead of Rs120 per litre from consumers.

Press secretary of All Karachi Milk Retailers and Welfare Association (AKMRWA) Waheed Gaddi, while trying to defend the price rise, said milk rate of Rs130 per litre is being charged by 30-40 per cent wholesalers in the city and not by the retailers.

People in Karachi consume 500,000-600,000 litres of fresh milk daily

He said dairy farmers had announced the rate of Rs140 per litre which the AKMRWA had rejected. Later on Feb 22, wholesalers had increased the rate by Rs10 per litre to Rs126-128 per litre which was also rejected by the retailers' body.

Waheed said the retailers, who depend on wholesale rates, could not hold the wholesale price hike of Rs10 per litre and retailers would have to pass on to the consumers from the first week of March by charging Rs130 per litre on fresh milk followed by Rs200 per kg for yoghurt as compared to Rs180 per kg. People in Karachi consume 500,000-600,000 litres of fresh milk daily.

In July 2020, consumers had braved Rs10 per litre in fresh milk rate to Rs120 followed by Rs20 per kilo jump in yoghurt rate to Rs180 per kg. The official rate of loose milk has been pegged at Rs94 per litre since March 2017.

In ghee and cooking oil, the high-quality brands sell at Rs300 per litre/kg cooking oil and ghee versus Rs250 two to three months back. Average quality brands sell at Rs250 as compared to Rs200. Retailers said distributors of...