KARACHI: Despite the public’s expectation for a decrease in the cost of all essential goods following the strengthening of the rupee against the US dollar, the coalition government has failed to deliver any respite.
Despite an almost 12% increase in the value of the rupee, which has significantly reduced the landing cost of imported products, namely palm oil, lentils, and other consumables, all commodity prices have increased or remained constant.
Players on the commodity market raise prices when the dollar strengthens, but they typically don’t lower rates when the rupee does, which reflects lax oversight by the federal and provincial governments.In the interbank market, the dollar was trading for Rs239.96 on July 28 as opposed to Rs214 today.
A survey revealed that the cost of masoor increased from Rs320-340 per kg to Rs340-380 in less than a month, the cost of mung from Rs190-220 to Rs210-240, the cost of mash from Rs320-360 to Rs360-400, and the cost of gramme pulse from Rs230-250 to Rs240-260.
From 48,392 tonnes in June to 59,352 tonnes ($53m) in July, the import of pulses increased. These numbers, however, are significantly less than July 2021 imports of 127,167 tonnes ($89m).Pulses imports decreased from 1.266 million tonnes in FY21 to 897,352 tonnes ($611 million) in FY22.
Anis Majeed, patron-in-chief of the Karachi Wholesalers Grocers Association, claimed that the drying of pulses (in their complete form) at processing mills had been severely impacted by heavy rains in interior Sindh, slowing down supplies in the wholesale market. Pulses must be dried for at least a day.
