Soaring Ramazan prices: Calls echo on social media for boycott of fruits

KARACHI: Reacting to the soaring prices of fruits in Ramazan, a group of citizens have called for a boycott of the edible items to bring down the 'unjust' rates. 

Concerned citizens have launched a movement on social media asking for three-day boycott of buying fruits.

The messages, which started circulating on WhatsApp Wednesday night, asked people to boycott the purchase of fruits from June 2 to June 4 in order to bring their prices down to a normal level.

One of the messages asked people to consume ‘salan’ [curry] instead of fruits during iftaar. "Only through the boycott the fruit sellers decrease the prices," the message read further.

Another message asked for boycott of fruits with sky rocketing prices. 

In Ramazan, vendors tend to increase prices of essential items whose sale spikes as the demand increases. However, some sellers claim the rise in prices is not man-made but natural as demand increases manifold. 

In 2010, when sugar prices had skyrocketed, economists had suggested that lesser intake would ultimately weaken demand, and lead to a price crash in the open market.