Lahore Market Rate List for Wednesday, 9 Sept 2026

LAHORE: Seven vegetable lines fell and four rose on Wednesday’s official rate list, the first published session this month in which cuts have outnumbered rises, with onion down Rs10 to Rs215 per kilogram and local tomato down Rs10 to Rs195. The poultry column did not move at all.

The more consequential entry is one the sheet had left blank for a fortnight. Iranian tomato returned to the notification at Rs150 per kilogram on the same morning that the second local tomato grade, quoted at Rs160 on Tuesday, dropped off it.

The daily notification issued by the Market Committee, Lahore, under the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Department carried cuts on seven vegetable lines and rises on four. The fruit sheet moved on three lines, one up and two down. The mango column held at three varieties for a sixth session.

Diesel was raised for a fourth consecutive review, to Rs385.95 per litre.

Meat, poultry and eggs

Every line in the poultry column was carried forward unchanged. Live broiler chicken was notified at Rs314 per kilogram in the wholesale market, with the farm gate rate at Rs300 and the retail rate for live birds at Rs328. Broiler meat held at Rs476 per kilogram at the retail counter after Tuesday’s Rs7 cut.

Farm eggs were unchanged for a fifth session at Rs241 per dozen, with the wholesale crate again quoted at Rs7,110.

The spread between the live wholesale bird at Rs314 and dressed retail meat at Rs476 stands at Rs162, unchanged from Tuesday.

The notification repeats its standard rider on weight: broiler meat will not include the beak or the undressed gizzard containing feed, while cleaned gizzard may be counted in the weight. It is a technicality on paper and the most frequently disputed clause at the scale in practice.

Mutton and beef are notified separately from the Market Committee’s daily produce and poultry sheets and do not appear on Wednesday’s notification. This paper last reported them at Rs1,600 and Rs800 per kilogram.

Vegetables

Onion came down a further Rs10 to Rs215 per kilogram, its second consecutive fall. The line has now given back Rs15 of the Rs40 it added between Friday and Monday, and it remains Rs25 above Friday’s Rs190.

Local tomato fell Rs10 to Rs195, ending a run that had taken it from Rs145 to Rs185 to Rs205 and then held it flat for a session. The second local grade that appeared at Rs160 on Tuesday was not quoted on Wednesday’s sheet. In its place, Iranian tomato was notified at Rs150 and Rs140 for the two grades, the first rate against that line in this reporting cycle.

The cuts on the short-cycle lines extended. Okra came down Rs10 to Rs180, a third consecutive fall from the Rs240 it reached through the wet days. Capsicum eased Rs10 to Rs250 for a second consecutive session, and bottle gourd Rs10 to Rs140, also for a second. Cabbage moved for the first time in a week, down Rs10 to Rs120. Sugar-free potato gave back Tuesday’s Rs3 to return to Rs32, level with pumpkin at the bottom of the column.

Four lines rose, and two of them were lemon. Desi lemon added Rs10 to Rs155 and Chinese lemon Rs10 to Rs105. Green chilli added Rs10 to Rs130, its third consecutive Rs10 rise from Rs110 on Monday. Bitter gourd rose Rs10 to Rs150, reversing the cut it took on Monday.

The rest of the sheet stood still. Thai ginger held at Rs335 and Chinese ginger at Rs320, keeping the two imported gingers at the top of the vegetable column. Desi garlic held at Rs165 and Harnai garlic at Rs290, while Chinese garlic went unquoted for an eighth session. Fenugreek stayed at Rs300, cauliflower at Rs160, brinjal at Rs100, thick beans at Rs120, desi tinday at Rs180, ridge gourd at Rs90, farm cucumber at Rs90, Chinese carrot at Rs130, arvi at Rs80, farm spinach at Rs65 and pumpkin at Rs35.

New potato with raw skin, desi cucumber, desi carrot, turnip, radish, qulfa and mazoo were all left unquoted.

Fruit

The fruit sheet was close to frozen. Three lines moved.

Hill Kala Kulu apple in the special grade rose Rs10 to Rs320, taking it past both hill grades’ Tuesday levels, while the plain hill grade held at Rs200. Gacha special apple held at Rs375 after four rises in five sessions, and Gacha first grade at Rs250.

Two lines came down. First-grade banana eased Rs5 to Rs190 per dozen and Irani dates Rs10 to Rs435 per kilogram, which takes the dearest date grade off the second slot on the sheet.

The mango column was frozen for a sixth session. Chaunsa late held at Rs315, Ratth at Rs295 and black Chaunsa at Rs250. Anwar Ratol, Fajri, Chaunsa Moosi, white Chaunsa, plain Chaunsa and raw mango were blank again. The list carried nine mango lines in the first week of August.

Everything else held. Sundar Khani grapes remained the costliest listed item at Rs595 a kilogram, ahead of coconut at Rs485 each and Irani dates at Rs435. Gola grapes held at Rs285, new desi pomegranate at Rs310, pear at Rs330, special peach at Rs330, papaya at Rs270, guava at Rs200, persimmon at Rs200, cheeku at Rs195, garma at Rs185 and Aseel dates at Rs315. Iraqi dates held at Rs340, sweet potato at Rs80 and sugarcane sticks at Rs55. Second-grade banana held at Rs140 per dozen, sweet orange at Rs180, musambi at Rs130, grapefruit at Rs23 each and Lakki corn cobs at Rs30 each. First-grade peach, plum and white apricot were unquoted.

Official rate list, Wednesday 9 September 2026

Rates below are per kilogram unless stated otherwise, as notified by the Market Committee, Lahore. Grade A is the awwal column on the official sheet and Grade B the doim. A dash means the item was not quoted.

Meat, poultry and eggs

Vegetables

Fruit

Milk and yogurt

Loose milk and yogurt do not appear on the daily Market Committee sheet. Both are covered by a standing maximum retail price fixed by the Deputy Commissioner Lahore under the Punjab Foodstuffs (Control) Act, revised occasionally rather than rewritten every morning.

That price remains Rs170 per litre for loose milk and Rs190 per kilogram for yogurt. Neither has been widely available at those rates.

The reason is structural rather than administrative. More than 90 per cent of Pakistan’s milk moves through an informal chain of small producers, village collectors, dodhis and neighbourhood shops, with almost no cold-chain infrastructure and no documented cost of production. A notified retail price set without reference to the farmgate rate and the collector’s margin leaves the shopkeeper at the end of the chain unable to meet it.

Gold, silver and currency

Gold fell for a third session. The All Pakistan Gems and Jewellers Sarafa Association put 24-karat gold at Rs462,136 per tola after a Rs1,000 drop, with the 10-gram rate down Rs857 to Rs396,207. The 22-karat rate stands at Rs423,291 per tola, 21-karat at Rs404,369 and 18-karat at Rs346,602.

Silver moved the other way, adding Rs10 to Rs7,069 per tola, with the 10-gram rate at Rs6,060.

The local fall followed the international market, where gold slipped $10 to $4,396 an ounce on Tuesday. Bullion opened Wednesday at $4,430, and a firmer international open of that size usually reaches the Lahore counter as an intraday revision rather than at the morning fix.

In the open currency market the US dollar was quoted at Rs278.00 buying and Rs278.70 selling, ten paisa firmer on the buying side than Tuesday. The Saudi riyal was at Rs74.05 and Rs74.70 and the UAE dirham at Rs75.75 and Rs76.58, the two rates Lahore families living on remittances watch most closely. The euro was at Rs322.48 and Rs325.46 and the pound sterling at Rs375.75 and Rs378.70. The Kuwaiti dinar was the highest-valued currency on the counter at Rs886.10 and Rs896.75, followed by the Omani riyal at Rs718.95 and Rs729.20. The Qatari riyal was at Rs74.86 and Rs76.15, the Swiss franc at Rs343.15 and Rs347.85, the Australian dollar at Rs199.05 and Rs202.47, the Canadian dollar at Rs198.82 and Rs204.81, and the Japanese yen at Rs1.73 and Rs1.83.

Fuel

Petrol was raised Rs5.58 per litre to Rs364.35 and high-speed diesel Rs4.18 to Rs385.95, under a notification issued by the Petroleum Division on Tuesday and effective from Wednesday. Petrol had been Rs358.77 and diesel Rs381.77 for 8 September.

It is the fourth consecutive rise for diesel. The fuel has moved from Rs372.03 to Rs374.31, Rs378.05, Rs381.77 and now Rs385.95, a cumulative Rs13.92 across four reviews. Petrol has risen Rs18.48 in two days from the Rs345.87 that held for the 5 to 7 September period.

The cost is landed rather than fiscal. The international refined product benchmark climbed from $111.50 a barrel over 5 to 7 September to $113.61 on 8 September and $116.22 for Wednesday’s determination. The ex-refinery import price of petrol rose Rs5.58 to Rs253.90 a litre and that of high-speed diesel Rs4.18 to Rs279.08. The Petroleum Division notification records government levies and fixed profit margins as unchanged on both products, which means the entire move has been passed through from the import price.

Since the switch to daily pricing in July, petrol has risen Rs53.05 a litre and diesel Rs56.44.

The federally notified LPG consumer rate for September stands at Rs258.65 per kilogram, with an 11.8-kilogram domestic cylinder priced at Rs3,052.09 after OGRA raised the rate by Rs4.33 a kilogram from 1 September. The same cylinder cost Rs2,848.91 in July and Rs3,000.92 in August.

The figures above are the notified list, not what most households paid. [FILL — Wednesday field check in Township, Samanabad, Shadman and the katchi abadis: the gap between the notified sheet and the asking price at retail counters, with two or three named lines.]

Enforcement rests with price-control magistrates working under the district administration, who can fine or seal a shop selling above the notified rate. With thousands of retail points across the district and a list rewritten every morning, inspection reaches only a fraction of them. Complaints can be registered on the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Department helpline, 0800-02345, and the department has repeated that a rate list without an official stamp is not valid.

Analysis

Tuesday’s report set a test. The second tomato grade at Rs160 was the number to watch: if it stayed on the sheet and the first grade fell toward it, the September tomato episode was over; if it disappeared, the volume behind it was a one-day arrival and Rs205 was a floor rather than a ceiling.

The sheet answered both halves, and it answered them in opposite directions. The Rs160 line was gone within a single session, so the domestic volume behind it was indeed a one-day arrival. But Rs205 was not a floor either. The local line fell Rs10 to Rs195 anyway.

The reason is in the row underneath. Iranian tomato has come back onto the notification at Rs150, and that changes the shape of the argument. The low slot on the tomato block is now held by an import rather than by a second domestic grade. A committee quotes an imported line when consignments are actually clearing the market in volume worth pricing, and an import landing Rs45 below the local first grade puts a ceiling over that grade that no amount of domestic arrivals had managed to put there in a fortnight. The September tomato episode is not over because local supply recovered. It is ending because something cheaper arrived from outside.

That is a different story with a different tail. Domestic supply recovery is self-correcting and local. Import-led correction depends on consignments continuing to clear and on the rupee, which was ten paisa firmer on Wednesday but has no particular reason to stay there. If the Iranian line goes blank again, Rs195 will not hold.

The wider vegetable sheet has genuinely turned. Seven cuts against four rises is the first net-negative session of the month, and the cuts are concentrated exactly where the rain damage was: okra down for a third consecutive session, capsicum and bottle gourd for a second, cabbage moving for the first time in a week. That is a supply picture normalising on schedule, and it confirms the disruption was in loading and haulage rather than in the crop.

The four rises are not a counter-argument. Both lemons moving Rs10 on the same morning is a seasonal line rather than a supply signal, and green chilli’s third consecutive Rs10 rise, from Rs110 on Monday to Rs130 on Wednesday, is a short-cycle crop doing what short-cycle crops do at the end of a hot spell.

The frozen poultry column is worth more attention than it usually gets. Every line held after Tuesday’s Rs5 to Rs7 cuts, which leaves the spread between the live wholesale bird at Rs314 and dressed retail meat at Rs476 at Rs162 for a second session. That spread is the working margin for chicken shops across Township, Samanabad and Shadman. A margin that stops narrowing usually means shed supply from the Kasur and Sheikhupura belts has found its level, and it takes the immediate heat out of the price-control argument that a falling market tends to generate.

Which leaves diesel as the only line on this sheet still moving in one direction. Four consecutive rises, Rs13.92 in total, is no longer a review-to-review wobble; it is a cost floor moving under the produce sheet. Almost nothing in the mandi runs on petrol. Arrivals from the Kasur, Okara and Sheikhupura belts, inter-district haulage and the delivery runs into neighbourhood bazaars are all diesel, and freight is the first cost a commission agent passes forward.

The composition of Wednesday’s rise matters more than its size. Levies and margins are unchanged, so every rupee comes from the ex-refinery import price, tracking a refined product benchmark that has climbed $4.72 a barrel in two determinations. There is no domestic decision available to reverse that, so the usual expectation of a corrective cut in the next review does not apply. And under daily pricing the pass-through is immediate, which removes the fortnightly lag that used to let a haulier absorb one bad week before repricing.

Petrol’s Rs18.48 in two days will not touch the mandi, but it will reach households through fares and delivery charges faster than the produce sheet reaches them through vegetables. Ride-hailing and intercity coach pricing under daily fuel revision now repositions within a day rather than a fortnight, and that is the line item most Lahore families will feel first.

The number to watch this week. The Iranian tomato line at Rs150. If it holds for three sessions and the local grade keeps sliding toward it, the correction is real and the sheet has found its September level. If it goes blank again, the low slot empties, local tomato has no ceiling over it, and Rs195 becomes the bottom of a week that is about to get more expensive on freight alone.