Dry fruits in Pakistan are such a fundamental part of the wintertime experience in the country that even a single season without them would feel grossly incomplete. Anyone and everyone, from people living in high rises to simple village dwellers, engage in the common hobby of consuming these dry fruits during the winter as a snack food
But some dry fruits are so expensive that they often remain outside of the hands of the majority of the populace. These fruits are coveted more as a treasure sometimes than they are a simple food, and for good reason.
In this article, we will tell you about some of the most extravagant dry fruits in Pakistan, and their prices as well as give you some idea as to what it is about them that makes them so extravagant an item.
What makes Dry Fruits in Pakistan an Extravagance
Pakistan as a country is the victim of constantly increasing inflation, making everything that you can imagine more and more outside of the reach of the common folk. When combined with the almost exorbitant prices of some of these dry fruits that we will tell you about, means that it would not be wrong to call the buying and consumption of these fruits, an extravagance. There are even some reports of dry fruit shop owners employing armed security to protect their stock from the possibility of armed robbery.
Now with all of this in mind, here are some of the most expensive dry fruits:
Cashew Nuts
What better place to start on a list of extravagant dry fruits, than the one that it is almost stereotypical at this point to call a rich person’s dry fruit. These kidney bean-shaped nuts are known for their buttery and smooth taste, and because of this price are often only found as a garnish on sweets or as an ingredient in dishes made for special occasions.
Now let’s come to the price. The current cashew nuts price in Pakistan averages to about Rs. 4000 for a single kilogram.
One of the biggest reasons that cashew nuts are so extremely expensive in Pakistan is the fact that they are almost entirely an imported product, usually brought from Nigeria or India. There is little to no local production of cashews in the country. This alone is enough reason to explain the sky-high prices of this dry fruit in the country. But it is important to know that the process of the production of cashew nuts is a long and laborious process usually involving plucking them by hand, one cashew nut from one cashew fruit, and going through a long process to make them safe for human consumption.
Peanut Butter
A bit of a different entry that we think still has a place on this list, as it is a product made directly from a dry fruit, and possibly the form that dry fruit is most commonly consumed worldwide. Peanut Butter is of course made from what is locally known as ‘mong phali’, or peanuts in English. This spread is one of the most well-loved forms of breakfast food across the world.
The interesting thing here is that 1 kg peanuts price in Pakistan is less than Rs. 1000 on average for a kilogram, which makes one curious as to why peanut butter is often so shockingly expensive.
Well, the thing that we need to understand here is the process that raw peanuts have to go through to be made into peanut butter. The first thing that we have to understand is just how difficult peanuts are to store without them going bad. It is extremely easy for a batch of peanuts to go bad if there isn’t special care given to the way that they are stored in a warehouse, which as you can imagine, costs more than usual.
In addition, the peanut butter found in Pakistan is almost always imported, adding additional costs and taxes making their net price very high. Keeping all this in mind, it maybe isn’t that surprising that the average peanut butter price in the country is much higher than even most other places.
Chilgoza
One dry fruit that people don’t realize is possibly near the top, if not at the top of dry fruits in terms of their prices is the chilgoza. This dry fruit is known for having in addition to its unique nutty taste some unique health benefits not otherwise common in dry fruits.
So why are they so expensive? Well, chilgoza as a dry fruit can take three years to mature enough to be fit for consumption. In addition, it is long and difficult to even extract them once they are ready to do so. This should explain why chilgoza price in Pakistan 1kg can often be close to 10,000 rupees.
Pista
Pistachios, known as pista locally, is a beloved dry fruit for use as a topping on ice creams and other sweet dishes. Known for the clam-shaped shell that they common in along with a unique green color, this dry fruit is also one of the most expensive dry fruits in Pakistan.
The current pista 1kg price in Pakistan averages around Rs. 3500. The reasons for this are mainly the fact that pistachios require a lot of difficult manual labor to harvest in a way that you get good quality nuts, and a very small amount is gotten for the amount of effort that is put in.
Closing Thoughts
While the practices that are required for the production of these dry fruits mean that they might stay at higher rates than most other dry fruits, there is the possibility of a decent decrease if there are efforts made to localize their production, and thus remove at least the extreme import costs that are often associated with these dry fruits.
