DOHA: Fear of increase in prices of vegetables and fruits during the first day of Ramadan is driving many to the central markets here.
An increasing number of people are seen at the Mawashi, fish and, vegetable and fruit markets, increasing the demand for food items. Both citizens and expatriates, flocking at the markets are urging for stricter procedures and monitoring to control prices, a local daily reported.
"The current vegetable and fruit prices are normal and hope the situation will be stable. Still, we are afraid that prices will increase during the first days of the holy month," said Abu Suoud, a customer.
"Vegetable and fruit prices have increased a bit and hence we need more control from the Consumer Protection Department before Ramadan. We also need more monitoring in the market so that people are not exploited," a Qatari said. A box of tomatoes costs QR11 to QR13, while marrow is priced between QR22 and QR28, and lady's finger rates ranges from QR5 to QR15, at the vegetable market. Cucumber is sold at QR15, onion at QR22 and a kilo of garlic is available at QR6.
While consumers are afraid of vegetable price hikes, they are satisfied with the control at the Mawashi on livestock prices. The prices of sheep were recently lowered, while consumers find fish and chicken prices reasonable.
The prices of sheep are based on size and quality. Earlier, a big Syrian sheep would be sold at QR1,100, while a small one was available at QR950. The price has been reduced to QR800 per sheep. Some 150,000 Australian sheep has already been imported.
"Mawashi has contracted for 20,000 Syrian and Jordanian sheep which has helped to have competition among dealers. There is much demand for sheep and hence the abattoirs have seen improvement. We have simplified the procedures and increases working hours to 13 hours per day. On the first day when the prices were lowered, we sold some 800 Syrian sheep and on the second day 600 were sold. About 90 to 100 sheep are slaughtered every 30 minutes in the automatic abattoir. Consumers say that prices are reasonable and there is much demand for the sheep," said Dr Dafallah Abdelghani Alhassan, Mawashi production manager.
Meanwhile, vendors at the Fish market stressed that prices are reasonable now. Hamour is available at QR30 to QR35, while Zubaidi is available at QR20 and Saudi Shrimps are available at QR40.
© The Peninsula 2011
