Tetra milk producers jack up price by eight percent

The producers have increased price of tetra pack milk by 8 per cent this week, while during the ongoing year packaged milk price was raised by Rs 20 per litre. According to a survey carried out by Business Recorder, leading tetra milk producer like Nestle, Olphers, Haleeb and others have increased price of 1/4 litre pack by Rs 2, 1/2 litre pack by Rs 4 and 1 litre pack by Rs 6 just one month before the arrival of new budget.
Last year 1/4 litre pack of milk was available at Rs 16, 1/2 litre pack at Rs 30 and 1 litre pack at Rs 56, which is now being sold at Rs 22 per 1/4 litre, Rs 40 per 1/2 litre and Rs 76 per litre. Similarly the suppliers of loose-milk have also increased the price by Rs 5 per kg in the market. Last week per kg loose milk was available at Rs 60 per kg, which is now being sold at Rs 65 per kg.
A vegetable trader Waleed Qureshi told this scribe that lemon, garlic and ginger prices have been increased by Rs 80 per kg, Rs 40 per kg and Rs 30 per kg during last month. Last week tinda was being sold at Rs 30 per kg, which this week is being sold at Rs 40 per kg, last week desi tinda was available at Rs 50 per kg, which is now being sold at Rs 70 per kg, Waleed added.
During the week under review the prices of different fruits including banana increased by Rs 5 per dozen, apple by Rs 10 per kg, peach by Rs 5 per kg, melon by Rs 5 per kg and water melon by Rs 5 per kg. Last week banana was available at Rs 60 per dozen, which is now being sold at Rs 65, apple was available at Rs 100 per kg which now is available at Rs 110 per kg, melon was sold at Rs 30 per kg which now is available at Rs 40 per kg and water-melon last week was being sold at Rs 15 per kg, which now is available at Rs 20 per kg.
During the survey it is observed during the week under review prices of some of the essential commodities including vegetables, live chicken, chicken meat, wheat flour, eggs and vegetables registered a slight decrease against last week prices.
Cauliflower is available at Rs 30 per kg, peas at Rs 50 per kg, cucumber at Rs 20 per kg, okra at Rs 50 per kg, Kareela at Rs 40 per kg, Shimla Mirch at Rs 60 per kg, onions at Rs 20 per kg, potatoes at Rs 30 per kg, tomatoes at Rs 20 per kg, live chicken at Rs 115 per kg, and chicken meat at Rs 200 per kg.
With the arrival of summer prices of traditional drinks like Lasi, Falsa Juice and other fruit juices have also increased. However, the prices of an entire range of pulses like gram, moong, malsh, masoor and lobia, besides cooking oil/ghee, rice, sugar and different spices remained stable in the market.
One Ustad Khalid Malik, who works at an auto-workshop in Pirwadhai area of Rawalpindi said that ever increasing prices of essential commodities have made the lives of poor masses miserable and now common man is unable to afford school fees with education becoming more and more expensive with each passing day. He said that people like him are compelled to send their young kids to different workshops to learn a trade and make some money to supplement household income. He said that he has five children and two are working with him in the workshop.