A favourite summer drink Rooh Afza appears to have vanished from kirana shops during the holy month of Ramadan. It is believed that family conflict is the reason behind the shortage of popular drink. Speculation is rife that the 450,000 retailers who stock the popular indigenous drink are in a panic because its maximum sales take place during ‘iftari’ or the breaking of the fast. Production has been stopped since last November.
To fight the Rooh Afza crisis, Pakistan has offered a helping hand to the neighbour. CEO of Hamdard Pakistan Usama Qureshi said that if India allows, they can send the sherbet from Wahga border.
Hamdard Labs which is the company behind the brand claims that shortage of key ingredients is behind the supply bottlenecks. Mansoor Ali, chief sales and marketing officer at Hamdard, dismissed the reports regarding rift within the family. He is quoted to have said, “We are facing supply constraints of certain herbal ingredients. We hope to fix the demand-supply gap within a week.”
According to Inquilab, Mansoor Ali said since Hamdard doesn’t compromise on the quality of its medicines and drinks, hence such station arose. He said we would never use alternative herbal ingredients, instead of the herbs we have been using for decades. If ‘khaand’ is mentioned in the ingredient of any product we would not use sugar instead of ‘khaand’.
Mr Mansoor Ali claimed that the necessary ingredients have been found and the production of the drink has begun on war footing. The crisis will end soon, he said.