Pakistan this week banned overland onion exports to chief rival India. -- PHOTO: AP
ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN this week banned overland onion exports to chief rival India in a bid to control rising prices at home for the South Asian food staple, the commerce ministry said on Friday.
'The exports triggered a shortage of onions in our domestic market,' a ministry spokesman told AFP.
'I can confirm the restriction has been imposed on exports of the commodity through the Wagah border,' he said, in reference to the land crossing between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since 1947.
Exports of onions to India by sea, however, were not restricted, he said.
The clampdown was aimed at discouraging ordinary traders from trucking onions to India, currently facing a shortage of the vegetable, after consumers complained that costs have more than doubled in Pakistan in recent weeks.
Prices in Islamabad, where food items are generally more expensive than elsewhere, have risen from 40 Pakistani rupees last month to up to 90 rupees a kilo (S$2.57). -- AFP
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