The government has decided to ban the export of bananas and onions till the end of Ramadan to control prices in the domestic market.
Chief Secretary Punjab Zahid Akhtar Zaman penned a letter to the government advocating for a halt in the export of both food items as their prices continue to surge, in order to shield the nation from the repercussions of escalating costs.
Consequently, the government has implemented a ban on banana exports to Afghanistan and Iran, while onion producers are now restricted from selling their produce to Gulf countries.
The inflationary trend was further underscored by the recent release of weekly inflation figures by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for the week ending February 29, 2024, revealing a 5.25% increase in banana prices and a 2.87% uptick in onion prices.
Meanwhile, ahead of Ramazan, the Karachi commissioner has issued a price notification for various commodities. Prices have been fixed for essential items such as milk, sugar, flour, meat, and poultry products to ensure affordability and accessibility for consumers during the fasting period.
The price of milk has been established at Rs200 per kilogram, sugar at Rs130 per kg, flour at Rs128 per kg, fine flour at Rs138 per kg, boneless beef at Rs950 per kg and Rs800 with bone, goat meat at Rs1,700 per kg, live chicken at Rs366, and its meat at Rs598 per kg. Notably, the previous rate of chicken meat was Rs502 per kg.
