Food prices surge by 50 to 80pc

LAHORE - The prices of most of the Ramazan food items including fruits, dates and chicken meat have surged by 50 to 80 per cent here in the City as compared to the last year in the month of Ramazan, market sources said on Monday.

The fruits and vegetable market dealers said the increasing transportation cost and rising demand as compared to the supply are the major factors behind the increase in the prices of fruits and vegetables as the demand of both the food items soared to a reasonable extent during Ramazan.

“Every year the prices of fruits and vegetables shoot up during Ramazan because the market dealers start selling food items on high prices to the vendors. Consequently, the vendors are left with no other option but to charge high prices from the consumers,” Imdad Khan a vendor said.