The three-day Karachi Eat Festival that returned after two years of gap has attracted hundreds of visitors amid Omicron surge which reaches to the alarming level of 35 per cent in the metropolitan city in last 24 hours.
The event, being held at Karachi’s Beach View Park, Clifton, had recorded 0.1 million people in 2020 and was suspended due to Covid-19, would conclude on Sunday.Organizers and participants scrambled to ensure compliance of Covid-related Standard Operating Procedures because as many as 2,846 cases were reported only from the metropolitan city, Karachi, on Friday as per the data issues by the National Command and Operation Centre for Sindh.
The ‘Karachi Eat’ which provides the opportunity for various food start-ups to place their stalls and offer categorized food items for the participants are projecting higher sales this year. However, the organizers reportedly had already reduced 20 percent of the stalls this year, bringing them to 96 in totality.
The first day of the event which was a working day the number of people visiting the event was a bit low as the organizers this time only facilitated online ticketing, retracting from the old practice of selling the tickets on the venue to ensure covid-related compliance and to avoid long-queues. Talking to APP the organizers informed that approximately a little above 1,000 people participated the event on its inaugural day but the number is expecting to surge significantly by Sunday.
On Covid related SOPs compliance the organizers said, a fine of Rs 25,000 would be imposed for any vendor who does not ensure mask wearing for him/her and also to its customers to ensure a protected environment in the surging pandemic. From Desi food items to fast food eateries, each and everything the buyer craves for, was available to ensure maximum visitors and accommodate a variety of food lovers.
The visitors however complaint of exorbitant prices and demanded to bring them down so that people with low income could also fully enjoy the even’s festivities with their families.Karachi Eat Festival has become a well-reputed profitable platform for small eateries to make their business grow and to establish an identity to make permanent clientage to attract them to their respective outlets the whole year.
Pakistan, the sixth largest populated country across the world, is largely sustained by the growing middle-class has a large food and beverage processing industry. According to relevant officials, Pakistan food industry is the largest following the textile industry, which has the 16% of workforce in the manufacturing sector and accounts for 27% of value-added production.
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