KARACHI: A number of stores have begun to charge an additional Rs100 per kg for beef and mutton in advance of Ramadan, revealing the absence of any formal system in place to monitor prices.
Retailers who formerly charged Rs1,000 and Rs1,200 per kg for veal (Bachia) meat both with and without bones are now asking Rs1,100 and Rs1,300 per kg, correspondingly.
A client in the N Block of North Nazimabad reported that, a few days prior, he had paid Rs1,200 and Rs1,400 for veal flesh with and without bones, an increase of Rs100 per kg.
Retailers of mutton are charging Rs2,000 per kg as opposed to Rs1,900.
The government’s oversight programs are still ineffectual.
As has been the custom in the past, meat prices typically see many price increases before to Ramadan and Eidul Fitr. These price fluctuations to customers are often overlooked because of inadequate monitoring systems and the setting of inflated prices.
Meat vendors persisted in their tired rhetoric, citing increased meat exports along with increased transportation and other costs as the primary causes of the market’s optimistic trend.
The nation’s exports of meat and meat products increased by 40% in volume and 27% in value to 70,458 tonnes ($288 million) in 7MFY24 from 50,235 tonnes ($227 million) in the same period the previous year. In contrast to $4,516 during the same period previous year, exports brought in an average per tonne (APT) cost of $4,089 this time around.
Exporters are diversifying their deliveries to new marketplaces like China and South Africa over cooked meat from beef and without bones frozen and heat-treated/cooked beef that has been frozen for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Central Unrestricted Estates, and Iraq, in addition to investing in expanding their current meat chilling and freezing capacities.
Whether the officials are working without additional responsibilities or are engaged in other tasks, their official rates as set by the Commissioner Karachi Office are meaningless.
Without taking into account the realities of the market, the commissioner of Karachi has already raised the tariff of mutton from Rs1,540 established on October 3, 2023 to Rs1,700 per kg on December 5.
Although veal both with and without bones is officially priced at Rs. 800 and Rs. 950 per kg, very few stores actually sell it for these amounts.
Haroon Qureishi, the president of the Meat Merchant Welfare Association, told Dawn on Saturday that rising wholesale prices was the reason why retail prices had increased. He claimed, “The government apparatus constantly questions retailers but ignores the increase in wholesale prices.”
He asserted that there has been a surge in the export of meat and live animals in tandem with the smuggling of huge animals into Afghanistan.
There must be a mechanism in place for the export of meat and cattle because local consumption takes precedence. He maintained that rising meat exports are the reason for the scarcity that the market is facing.
He stated that the group had requested that the commissioner take care of the fact that exporters were removing animals from one Karachi cattle market, resulting in a mismatch between supply and demand.
According to Mr. Haroon, the exact same thing is occurring with onions, where a substantial amount is exported at high costs to customers.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
