Vendors distressed over price monitors’ bias

Say no action against wholesalers, urge authorities to allow up to 10% profit

ISLAMABAD: The city's fruit and vegetable vendors on Thursday complained that the price control teams mandated to monitor prices were solely targeting them, insisting they reduce their rates; while wholesalers were allegedly at liberty to impose the amount of their own choice.

They were of the view that the assigned teams only restricted their visits to the bazaars and small markets as they do not dare to enter in main supply markets, due to which the vendors’ interests were being compromised.

A vegetable vendor Qamar Shahzad at Sector H-9 Bazaar said they were forced to sell the products below the reasonable profit margin while the middleman was having a lion's share with a nominal effort.

He said vendors were strictly following the rates set by competent authorities but it was distressing for them to return home with empty pockets.



Shahzad said they were forced to sell one kilogramme potato at Rs25, onion at Rs25, spinach at Rs27 and mint at Rs10 per bundle, almost the same prices they pay to wholesalers.

"Waking up early in the morning, going to the main vegetable and fruit market and then selling produce in the scorching summer heat is a herculean task. Getting low profit for the labour is highly unjustified,” he added.

Fruit seller Rameez Abbasi at Karachi Company Bazaar said it was a matter of survival now and running the business with a 5-10 per cent profit margin after paying heavy rent, utility bills, transportation cost, and employees’ salaries was just impossible.

Rameez said they were selling the apple, banana, mango, peach and watermelon at prescribed rates of Rs90, Rs160, Rs150, Rs100 and Rs20 per kg respectively with a nominal margin picked from the main market.

He requested that the authorities concerned devise a mechanism for a justified distribution of profits among all stakeholders so that they could also earn reasonable amount to run their economic wheels.

A wholesaler requesting anonymity said the authorities could not manage to maintain rates as they continue to vary on a daily basis after the arrival of the stock in the markets.

"The fruits and vegetables are sold through the bidding process in the market early morning daily,” he said adding that the retail market, is being controlled by the group who greases the palms of price control teams, which lessens the profit margin for the last buyer.



Farmer Akbar Ali, who brings his products from Haripur in Pirwadahi Market, said, the middleman-retailer nexus takes a major chunk of the profit for a nominal effort while growers have to go through a long process of labour from harvesting to delivery in the market. "The retailers in the market control the demand and supply chain of the edible items in order to mint rates of their own will," he added.

Market Committee Chairman Rosh Dil Khan Hoti on vendors’ complaints said in a recently called meeting he has directed his staff to increase the number of visits in the market as earlier only surprise visits were being paid.

He said he had held 20 meetings with the chairman of Traders Association Ajmal Baloch to convince him to manoeuvre the 20 year old system of letting retailers earn a 10 per cent profit.

He informed that now the department issued a separate rate list for the vendors of suburban areas of the capital in which they were allowed to charge buyers enough to make a 10 per cent profit for themselves.

Meanwhile, the shopkeepers working in expensive sectors like F-6, F-7, and F-8 were allowed to charge prices allowing them to have a 30 per cent profit margin. This was due to the heavy rent of shops in their respective areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2018.