Dates, the sweet dry fruit, a Ramzan essential for Muslims to break their fast, has seen an unprecedented rise in its price this year. Muhammad Iqbal Lone, a Srinagar-based dry fruit dealer and a cross-Line of Control (LoC) trader, told The Hindu that dates, which are mainly imported from the Middle Eastern countries and Afghanistan, are costlier by 50-100% for five to 10 kg boxes. Traders across the LoC blame the now defunct trading routes with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) for the uncontrolled price hike.
"A box of dates that would cost ₹500-600 is selling at ̥₹1200 this Ramzan. Freight charges have gone up because of several factors. We have to ferry the stocks from the Mumbai ports to Srinagar. Earlier, when the cross-LoC trade was functional, the cost of dates was very less because we would just pay the freight charges from Uri to Srinagar," Mr. Lone said.
Inflation in J&K peaked to 7.59% in March, which was significantly higher than the national average of 6.95%. Ferrying charges have gone considerably due to the war between Russia and Ukraine this year, affecting prices of all imported essentials. The distance between Mumbai and Srinagar is over 2,000 km, and Uri, where one of the cross-LoC trade facilitation centres was set up in Kashmir, is only about 100 km away from Srinagar. Ramzan dates sales in J&K has touched ₹15-20 crore this year, according to traders.
