Amid a severe economic crisis as Pakistan seeks a deal with IMF, consumers continue to face severe prices for daily use items including milk and chicken. Prices of loose milk have been increased to PKR 210 from 190 per litre and live broiler chicken has seen an increase of Rs30-40 per kg in the last two days with which it now costs 480-500 per kilogram, Dawn reported.
The chicken meat is now being sold at PKR700-780 a kg which was PKR620-650 per kg before, the report added while boneless meat price hit a new peak of Rs1,000-1,100 per kg.
On milk prices, Karachi Milk Retailers Association media coordinator Waheed Gaddi said as per Dawn that “over 1,000 shopkeepers are selling milk at an inflated rate. These are actually shops of wholesalers/dairy farmers and not ours members”.
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He further said that if the price hike announced by dairy farmers and wholesalers is not reverted, milk is set to cost PKR220 per litre instead of Rs210.
On soaring poultry rates, Sindh Poultry Wholesalers Association general secretary Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui said that the wholesale rate of live bird was Rs600 per kg while meat rate was hovering between Rs650 and Rs700, the report said.
This comes amid a stalemate in talks between IMF and Pakistan which come as a blow to Shehbaz Sharif’s government as the country struggles with the recovery from record-breaking floods last year, which killed 1,739 people and destroyed 2 million homes.
