Hyderabadi Biryani May Become Expensive; Here’s Why

OB Bureau

August 24, 2021 6:06 pm

Photo courtesy: Recipesofhome

New Delhi: Lovers of Hyderabadi biryani may have to shell out more to savour it. Prepared with dry fruits and a variety of spices, it may soon become more expensive. All this is due to the return of The Taliban, which has reportedly stopped the movement of cargo through the transit routes of Pakistan, leading to a spike in prices of dry fruits sold in India. We import around 85 percent of our dry fruits from Afghanistan, reported Frontline quoting restaurants in Hyderabad.

“We are keeping an eye on the developments in Afghanistan. Imports from there come through the transit route of Pakistan. At the moment, Taliban has stopped the movement of cargo to Pakistan, so imports have virtually stopped,” Dr Ajay Sahai, Director General (DG) of Federation of Indian Export Organisation, told India Today.

“If trade doesn’t resume, prices of the existing dry fruit stock will shoot and traders will have to also look for alternative sources of supply,” he added.

Gaurav Jaggi, a trader in New Delhi’s Khari Baoli, the biggest dry fruit market, told India Today that prices of walnuts, apricots and almonds from Afghanistan had doubled and tripled over the past few days.

“We are already seeing an impact on prices. It is impacting the consumer. Prices have steadily risen over the past few days. This is the harvesting season for many dry fruits but because the supply chain has been throttled, we don’t expect fresh stock to arrive anytime soon,” Gaurav Jaggi was quoted as saying.

Even traders in Jammu said the increase in dry fruit prices had caused them to suffer significant financial losses. They also reported a decline in dry fruit sales in the previous week, the report said

Jyoti Gupta, president of Jammu Dry Fruit Retail Traders’ Association was quoted as saying that prices of dry fruits would increase further if uncertainty continued in Afghanistan.