LAHORE: The import of daily-use vegetables, including tomato, potato and onion, from India has increased as truckloads of 60 to 70 are being imported on a daily basis from Amritsar to Lahore via the Wahga border, Daily Times learnt on Monday.

On Sunday and Monday, around 60 trucks of tomatoes, eight potatoes and nine trucks of onions were offloaded on the Indian side of the border, as the commodities were then brought to the Pakistan side by labourers.

The demand of these three vegetables remains very high in Lahore and other parts of the province during the whole year with consumption of tomatoes considerably high in comparison to potatoes and onions.

The price of one kilogramme of tomatoes in the city’s markets is around Rs 70-80, the price of potatoes Rs 50 and that of onions Rs 40.

A dealer involved in the import process told Daily Times that the purpose of importing the vegetables from India was to make up for the increasing gap between the supply and demand of the edible items in Lahore and other cities of Punjab. To a question about what Pakistani exports were sent to India, the dealer said that there was a high demand for Pakistani spices in the Indian markets.

A vegetable retailer said that there were two main reasons behind the high demand of these three vegetables. “Firstly, there is a trend of purchasing these three commodities in bulk and storing them for one week. Secondly, these three items are used in most traditional Pakistani dishes,” he said.

Another vegetable retailer Sheikh Akram said that although it was routine to import these three vegetables from India, this year the tomato crop had been damaged due to floodwaters.

Aalia Siddiqui, a women who was purchasing tomatoes from a vegetable market situated near the railway crossing at Guru Mangat Road, said that she purchases tomatoes, potatoes and onions in large quantities for usage during the whole week. “Tomatoes and onions are used in all kinds of dishes to help make gravy, while potatoes are used in many dishes in combination with meat and vegetables,” she said.

Farmers Association of Pakistan acting president Hussain Jehania Gardezi was not available for comment despite repeated attempts to contact him.

Source: Daily Times