The production of ghee and edible oil over 4 million kilograms per day has been halted by the manufacturers, as the strike of factories entered third day while no supply was made to any wholesale or retail market.

Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) chairman Sheikh Abdul Waheed said that the prices of cooking oil as well as ghee have been increased by Rs 5 per kg all over the country and more jump is expected. He said that closure of mills is continuing as no government authority, neither at provincial level nor at central level, has approached us, which is very unfortunate.

He said that all ghee and cooking oil mills throughout the country had been shut down from Saturday to protest against Karachi’s transport mafia after Friday’s incident in which four tankers, carrying consignments of edible oil worth Rs 70 million, were torched.

He said that country will face an acute shortage of ghee as well as cooking oil within a couple of days because over 4 million kilograms or 4000 ton ghee and oil are produced daily across the country which cannot be stocked for a long period.

Industry sources said that the transport mafia, backed by political parties including PPP, MQM and ANP, forced the manufacturers to use its services for transportation purposes despite high rates. The powerful mafia is also involved in stealing the consignments (oil drums) from its supply trucks.

Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) has said that the gates of all the ghee and cooking oil mills have been remained closed from Saturday to show solidarity with the NLC, the services of which the PVMA uses for the transportation of consignments.

The PVMA said that the mills would be kept closed until the government gives an assurance of providing security for the safe transportation of edible oil consignments from Karachi to other destinations.

According to the PVMA, to ensure smooth supply of oil to ghee mills all over Pakistan, National Logistic Cell (NLC) was hired by PVMA. The said NLC services have been endorsed by Sindh High Court (SHC), Karachi vide its judgment on Feb 15, 2012. On February 17, 2012, tankers mafia flouted the orders of SHC and burnt four vehicles of NLC loaded with edible oil.

“We have close down 96 ghee and cooking oil units all over the country from Saturday,” said Tanvir Soofi, a leading name in oil manufacturing industry.

PVMA said, ghee industry was in the grip of an organised extortionist and transport/tanker mafia, which had paralyzed the transportation of imported edible oil from Port Qasim, Karachi, to upcountry destinations.

It said the PVMA was being victimised by constant unilateral increase in transportation rates, blackmailing and pilferage of their cargo. It said the burning of four NLC tankers, loaded with edible oil by tanker mafia, had created a wave of fear and uncertainty among the manufacturers.

Source: The Nation (21-2-2012)