LAHORE - The visitors of the Sunday bazaars continued to bear the brunt of rampant inflation, as the rates of vegetables increased sharply on the excuse of short supply due to Muharram holidays. Due to high prices, the number of market-goers was very low as they thought that the rates of all kitchen items including vegetables were out of their reach. A visit to the market revealed that most of the items prices were either higher or the same as compared to the last weeks rates. Particularly onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, cauliflower and cabbage were selling at higher rates as against the previous week. In the same way several items rates remained constant if compared to the prices of the previous week. Several main vegetables were also missing from the bazaars, including carrot, baggage, bitter gourd and lady finger. These items were totally missing at most of the Sunday bazaars while few of them were seen at selected stalls but in a very limited quantity. Vendors said that there was shortage of most of the vegetables and middlemen were keeping them in stock due to holidays of Muharrumul Haram. They said that the whole profit goes to the middlemen who are hoarding them in the hope of escalating the rates further despite abundant supply. But on the other hand retailers are forced to sell commodities at lower rates. They were of the view that they were getting the supplies at higher rates and still selling them at marginal profits. They said that they just charge a profit of Rs2-Rs3 per kg and it is their livelihood, said Jamil Ahmed, a vendor at Wahdat Colony Sunday bazaar. Interestingly, all stalls were full of vegetables even near the evening time but very few customers were seen around them, as they were hesitating to shop due to high prices. The tomato, which was available last week at Rs45 per kg shot up to 65/kg, up by Rs 20 per kg. Potato prices remained same at Rs 17 as compared to the last weeks rate, however its open market rate was Rs 20-25 per kg. Onion rates shot up to Rs 55 per kg from Rs 48 of the last week. Garlic Chinese rates remained constant and was available for Rs 180 per kg. In the same way garlic desi was selling for Rs 235 per kg. Indian ginger rate remained constant and was selling for Rs 180 per kg, and other variety of gingers including Thailand and Chinese rate also remained constant. Spinach rates were Rs7 per kg but was available in limited amount. Brinjal price was fixed at Rs 10 and cabbage price was fixed at Rs 20 per kg. Bitter gourd rates were fixed at Rs 35 per kg against last week rate of Rs40 per kg but was missing in Sunday bazaars. The price of potato new was fixed at Rs 17 per kg. Pumpkin price was fixed at Rs 25 per kg which was available for Rs 36 last week. Capsicum rates were fixed at Rs 90, down by Rs 10 from last week rate and green chili were selling at Rs 35 per kilogram. Arum rates were fixed at Rs 30 per kg but missing in majority bazaars. Shoppers said that some of the items were available at lower rates but majority of goods prices were the same as of the open market retail shops.