Increase in wheat price unprecedented

By Noshad Ali

LAHORE The increase in flour prices with the arrival of fresh wheat is a first in the history of Pakistan and is mainly down to the wheat procurement war between the Food Department, the Punjab chapter of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) and middlemen.

A 20-kilogramme flour bag was available for Rs 230 at retail on Friday after the PFMA’s announcement that it had increased the price by Rs 8 per bag on Thursday.

According to Food Department sources, a meeting between PFMA representatives and department officials, including Food Minister Chaudhry Iqbal, proved unsuccessful. The Food Department officials and PFMA representatives spent much of the meeting pointing accusing fingers at each other, the sources said.

They said PFMA officials blamed Food Department policies for creating the crisis, while Food Department officials blamed the PFMA for the inflated wheat prices. PFMA Punjab representatives said that if the PFMA did not purchase wheat for Rs 380 to Rs 390 per tonne, middlemen would buy wheat and sell it for more than Rs 400 because the department was not launching a crackdown on hoarders of wheat.

According to the sources, the PFMA Punjab representatives said prices had gone up because they were buying wheat from the open market at more than Rs 385 per tonne.

Akbari Mandi market sources said flourmills supplied flour bags after an increase of Rs 5, not Rs 8, but with the warning that process would go up another Rs 5 in a few days. They said the price of a 16kg ghee tin had increased by Rs 5 on the pretext that prices of edible items were increasing internationally. The prices of suji, maida and pulses had also been increasing, they said.

Muhammad Tasleem Khan, who comes of a middle class family, said whatever the tussle between the PFMA Punjab and the Food Department, it had broken the backbone of the common man because the prices of ghee, chicken, suji, maida and other foods were increasing.

Mr Khan said flour millers who hoarded wheat had created all the fuss just to earn more profit, as they did last year. “Millers want to trade wheat after creating a wheat crisis. He negligence of government officials is also to blame,” he said.

Muhammad Fayyaz Ali, a government employee, said it was hard for the common man to stick to his budget because of the increase in food prices. “The government should ponder over the problems being faced by the common man who is unable to meet his immediate needs,” he said.

Asked about the increasing flour prices, PFMA Punjab Chairman Liaqat Ali Khan said flourmills could not do anything because they were unable to sell wheat for less than Rs 380, the open market rate, because of the Punjab government’s policies. He said despite promises by Food Department officials, senior officials were creating problems in the purchase of wheat.

He said Punjab Food Secretary Shahid Hassan Raja had assured the PFMA Punjab in Friday’s meeting that they would not have to face problems in the purchase of wheat.

To a question about the supply of flour bags to the NWFP, he said the supply was continuing and on schedule. He said the Food Department was struggling to achieve its target and to supply wheat to flour millers according to their requirements. He said he was monitoring the transport of wheat to flour mills in the Punjab to make sure that they did not face problems. He hoped wheat prices would come down soon.

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