Flour, cooking oil rates up, gold down in Kabul — Pajhwok

KABUL (Pajhwok): Flour and cooking oil prices surged while the price of gold declined in Kabul during the outgoing week, market sources said on Saturday. Zmarai Safi, head of the Food Traders’ Association, said the price of a 49kg bag of Kazakh flour went up from 1,600 afs to 1,650 afs and 16 litres of Malaysian cooking oil increased from 2,000 afs to 2,100 afs. He said prices of other essential food items remained unchanged, with a 24kg bag of Indian rice at 2,500 afs, a 49kg bag of Indian sugar at 2,600 afs, one kilogramme of African black tea at 380 afs and one kilogramme of Indonesian green tea at 350 afs. Safi noted that retail prices differed slightly from wholesale prices in some cases, while the difference was more significant for some other products. Hamid Sufizada, a retailer in Dahan-i-Bagh market, put the retail price of a 49kg bag of Kazakh flour at 1,700 afs, a 24kg bag of Indian rice at 2,550 afs and a 49kg bag of Indian sugar at 2,650 afs. A 16-litre bottle of cooking oil sold for 2,150 afs, while one kilogramme of black tea cost 430 afs and the same quantity of green tea cost 400 afs. Mohammad Fawad, a jeweller in the Timor Shahi area, said the price of one gramme…