Due to the shortage of dollars in the country around 6,000 containers of pulses have been stuck at ports while shipping companies have collected $48 million in detention charges from importers on these stranded containers.
If these containers are not released there will be a new crisis of supply and prices of pulses in the month of Ramadan.
Karachi Wholesale Grocers Association Chairman Abdul Rauf Ibrahim while addressing a press conference along with Karachi Chamber Vice President Haris Agar, Pulse Importers Association’s Faraz Ahmed and others said that due to the stay of containers for long-term at the port pulses were likely to deteriorate while the burden of damage charges was also increasing.
He said that the value of pulses reaching the country was $1.5 billion suggesting the government ban all types of imports including pulses in the national interest after releasing consignments of pulses arriving in the country and suspending import permits for pulses.
Haris Agar vice-president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that ghee and oil ships were also stuck at the ports due to the non-availability of dollars. He said that if SBP did not put pulses on the priority list and the goods stuck at the ports were not cleared then there would be a crisis of pulses, ghee and oil in Sindh.
The Vice President of Karachi Chamber said that 80 percent of pulses including masoor, lobia, black gram were being imported into the country.
