Poultry prices drop as govt releases feed consignments

While the poultry crisis has begun to subside after the government released genetically modified soybean and canola seeds that had been stranded at ports, more than 100 containers of onions are held up at ports awaiting extension in duty and tax exemption leading to a further surge in vegetable prices across the country, Dawn learnt from official sources on Wednesday. According to Karachi Port Trust Shipping data, over 6,000 tonnes of Canola and nearly 7,000 tonnes of soya bean seeds had been offloaded over the past 48 hours. Containers loaded with onions are piling up at ports in the wake of withdrawal of sales tax and withholding tax, official sources said. Incidentally, the Minister for Food Security Tariq Bashir Cheema had recently defended the decision to stop the import of genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds in the country claiming that it was poisonous and unfit for human consumption.