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Flour prices up to Rs 400 per 20 kg

By Irfan Aligi

KARACHI: The flour prices in the city have reached Rs 400 per 20 kg and ‘chakki atta’ is being sold for Rs 480 per 20 kg. Flourmill owners claim that they extract only 10 percent fine and 10 percent ‘maida’, while sources that are monitoring flour from flourmills claim that from 100 kg of wheat, flourmills are extracting fine and ‘maida’ up to 35 percent, and bran up to 15 percent. The remaining 50 kg is called ‘dhaai number atta’ (2.5 rate flour).

The Sindh Food Department (SFD) has stopped the release of wheat from government stocks starting April 15, and will be resuming it in September. The official wheat prices have been fixed at Rs 1,621.67 per 100 kg inclusive of jute bags. The SFD were supposed to complete 700,000 metric ton (mt) procurement of wheat at the rate of Rs 625 per 40 kg exclusive of jute bags, but the procurement has been limited to just 100,000 mt as yet. The SFD has imposed section 144 in every wheat-growing district of Sindh so it can easily meet the targets of wheat procurement, but transportation of wheat from these districts to open markets in Karachi has no barriers.

The SFD confiscated 20 trucks of wheat that were heading to Karachi’s open markets. However, sources claim that the confiscation was a sheer drama to show that the SFD was working. They also claim that traders of wheat in open market have been allowed to procure as much wheat as they could, and this situation will enable the smuggling of wheat to neighbouring countries, which will lead to escalation of flour crisis at home.

Wheat prices in the open market are Rs 1,750 per 100 kg. ‘Chakki’ operators are major buyers of wheat from the open market, causing the ‘chakki atta’ to be sold at Rs 23 and Rs 26 per kg in the city.

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