Furniture traders ‘fighting for survival’

Market to shut down for Tuesday protest

KARACHI:

The collective of furniture owners in Karachi's Aram Bagh area said on Sunday that their businesses were at stake due to spiraling inflation and increase in the price of raw materials, with workshop owners unable to pay their employees.

The traders of the Aram Bagh Furniture Market said this while announcing a protest from 3pm to 5pm outside the Khaliqdina Hall on MA Jinnah Road on Tuesday. The market would be shut down for the market.

Atiq Mir, who is the patrol of the collective and also the chairman of All Karachi Traders Union, said that the government had failed to control inflation and price manipulation.

He said that manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of materials used in furniture - ranging from foam to hardware, glass, particle board, hardboard, plastic, wood, iron, resin, steel pipe, sofa fabric, paint and polishing materials - had been raising prices arbitrarily from time to time.

"Furniture shops and workshops are barely able to pay their employees and artisans, and there are no new jobs," he said. "Every other week there is a price change, making it difficult to work. People working in furniture workshops are losing their jobs," Mir continued, adding that lay offs could continue.

He said the rising manufacturing cost meant that they had to sell it a higher price. "Customers are already suffering due to inflation. They are unlikely to make purchases when there is a sizable prize difference from a little while ago," he said.

He said people in the market were in a state of despair and worried about their future. "Most small furniture businesses are on the verge of closing down. The stable and strong ones have also suffered losses," he said, adding that shopkeepers and manufacturers were in debt.

He urged the government to monitor price the price fluctuation and rein in elements responsible for hoarding and illegal profiteering.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2023.