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Bakers to increase prices of ‘flourless’ chips?

By Amar Guriro

KARACHI: As many as 1,200 bakers, who are associated with the Karachi Bakery Shops Association, have announced that they will raise the prices they charge for products such as coconut biscuits, pastries and bread – and also of those that do not use flour such as chips and some types of nimco.

“We have not put the new price list on the shops yet but have decided to raise the prices of all bakery products by Rs 10 to Rs 22 with effect from Tuesday,” said Haji Sufiyan Qureshi, a baker at Lucky Star area. He said the shopkeepers had little choice but to raise their prices as prices of flour and other raw materials had increased.

Qureshi said there were thirty types of biscuits, pastries, cakes and other bakery items. “We sell some biscuits at Rs 48 per kg while some are sold at Rs 120. Prices depend on taste and quality.”

Aslam, another baker in the same area, said the prices of bakery items were applicable only on biscuits made by local bakeries. “Prices of multinational companies’ biscuits and bakery items that are available in the market will remain unchanged.”

As expected, citizens panicked when they got to know about the expected increase in the prices.

“The government has already increased fuel prices and now the flour crisis. What exactly does the government want and why are they doing all these things? We should ask the federal government to prepare the monthly budget of a person who earns Rs 10,000 a month and has to feed nine family members, five of whom are children,” said Shamsuddin, an employee of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC). He opined that the government was increasing prices freely but not increasing the salary of employees of state-run departments.

Aamir Ali lives in a residential plaza in Saddar and regularly buys biscuits for breakfast. “I and two of my sons are working and everyday, we all leave for work early morning. Since everyone is sleeping at that time, we prefer biscuits and tea for breakfast but now I guess we’ll have to forego this ‘ayyashi’ (extravagance),” he said.

Most people that Daily Times spoke to said they preferred buying bakery products to serve to guests or for breakfast.

“My younger son and daughter take cakes to school for their tea break and if bakery owners are increasing prices, than it would be really difficult for me to buy some biscuits or cakes for them,” said another customer, who did not mention his name.

Abdul Rab, who owns a famous bakery on MA Jinnah Road, said that while prices of natural gas, electricity, other utilities, ghee, sugar, and cooking oil are already high enough, the government had also increased flour prices. “The baker business is becoming tougher day by day and maybe, one day, people won’t be able to find a biscuit to serve to guests or to have with evening tea.”

Economist says govt’s inefficiency caused wheat crisis: The government’s failure to efficiently handle the wheat distribution system has enable hoarders to cause a rise in the price of wheat in the country, said economist Dr. Kaiser Bengali, while talking to Daily Times on Monday.

The federal government forecasts the volume of the wheat crop every year after winter rains but this time the government made its forecast before the rains and declared a surplus when actually that was not the case and led to this crisis, he said. “It is not the first time that the government has had to handle the system, it has been responsible for it since 60 years and the officials certainly should know what to do. Despite that fact, they have still not made a proper system and this year, the hoarders got the opportunity to hide the stock, which led to such a huge price increase that now nobody can do much about it.”

Every year, the country faces a shortage of around 2 million metric tonnes of wheat between December and February, so the government makes up for the deficit through imports. The order is placed in November and reaches here by the end of January but this year, this did not happen. “When they declared a surplus wheat crop for the following year, how is it possible that they order an import of wheat and still there is a shortage?” Bengali pointed out.

Talking about possible solutions for this crisis, he suggested that wheat must be imported. “Hoarders have monopolised the market and if the government imports wheat more than the required quantity the hoarders would have little choice but to reduce the price of wheat as they have already hoarded much crop which would go to waste if not sold. The excess amount of imported wheat that the government may stock could be utilized next year when there would again be a shortage.”

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