Flour up another Rs6 a kg as chakki owners reject wheat issue price

Flour millers in Karachi raised prices by another Rs6 per kg on Thursday, taking their total increase over the past few days to Rs20 per kg, even as the Sindh government prepares to release subsidised wheat from October 15.

After the latest rise, mill rates for flour No. 2.5, maida and fine flour are Rs161, Rs173 and Rs176 per kg respectively, Dawn reported. Consumers are expected to face further increases when retailers pass on the hike in the coming days.

Chakki owners: ‘a bomb on the poor’

In Hyderabad, the Atta Chakki Owners Social Welfare Association criticised the Sindh government’s decision to release wheat to flour mills and chakkis at Rs12,500 per 100kg bag.

The association said the government had raised the issue price from Rs8,000 to Rs12,500, calling the Rs4,500 increase “highly regrettable” and “dropping a bomb on the poor”. It said:

• hoarders had become active soon after the announcement, pushing the market price of wheat up from Rs13,100 to Rs14,300 per 100kg
• the rise would push up retail flour prices and fuel inflation
• a wheat subsidy had been talked about but did not exist in practice

The association urged the chief minister, the food minister and the chief secretary to bring the issue price back to Rs8,000, recover hoarded wheat and release it into the market. It warned that rising wheat prices could cause unrest.

The Sindh government says it will release wheat at Rs12,500 from October 15 to stabilise prices, from stocks expected to reach 836,414 tonnes once supplies from PASSCO and imported wheat arrive.

PTI demands Rs5,000 support price

In Lahore, PTI Punjab Kissan Wing Secretary General Ejaz Shafi submitted an adjournment motion in the Punjab Assembly calling for the wheat support price to be set immediately at Rs5,000 per maund, to save agriculture from “impending collapse”.

He said the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on National Food Security had already approved the Rs5,000 figure, but the Punjab government had not acted on it. Farmers had earlier been forced to sell at Rs3,000 to Rs3,200 per maund, he said, while wheat now trades at Rs5,000 to Rs5,500, so the price rise had brought them no benefit. He also said the government paid Rs5,000 per maund for wheat imported from Ukraine but refused to pay local farmers the same.

Centre orders price monitoring

At the federal level, the National Price Monitoring Committee, chaired by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, voiced concern on Wednesday over rising prices of essential goods, particularly flour. It told provincial and district administrations to step up monitoring of supplies, hoarding, profiteering and unjustified price rises, especially in Lahore and Karachi.

The minister also ordered officials to check whether transport fares had risen disproportionately after fuel price increases, and asked the Ministry of Food Security to examine why DAP fertiliser prices remain high despite falling international prices.

Why it matters

Flour prices have climbed steadily in recent weeks, and the government’s planned wheat release is meant to bring them down. Millers, chakki owners and farmers are all now pushing back on how wheat is being priced, leaving consumers to absorb the increases in the meantime.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn.