September 20, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 07, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 19: Retailers are still reluctant to pass on the benefit of a recent cut in wholesale price of atta to consumers, and they are still selling various varieties at enhanced rates.

Atta no 2.5 is being sold at Rs18 while chakki and fine is available at Rs22 and Rs20 a kg, respectively, while the 10 kg fine atta bag is being sold at Rs200 and 220.

After touching its peak level of Rs1,600 last week, wheat prices settled at Rs 1,450 on Wednesday, while the mill atta price declined to Rs1,350 from Rs 1,425 last week due to increase in wheat supply to flour mills.

Retailers said they had purchased atta from mills at a higher rate and it would take time for costlier stocks to deplete. Retail atta rates, they claimed, will come down in a few days.

Retailers were quick enough to push up rates soon after the increase in mill atta rate. But now they are reluctant to bring down prices at the same pace.

A spokesman for the Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG) defended the situation and stated that atta rates had fallen by Re 1 per kg on Wednesday, but a random market survey revealed that consumers are yet to see any price decline.

Wheat prices had started declining after a sentimental impact of a 50 per cent increase in wheat supply to mills in Sindh on Monday. However, mills would start getting the increased quota from Friday. Besides, the report regarding issuance of first tender for import of 500,000 tons of wheat on Thursday also created an impact on prices.

A spokesman for the Wheat Traders Association of Pakistan (WTAP) said that the import of one million tons of wheat would cost the country $450 million keeping in view the rising international prices.

Terming the current wheat crisis as disastrous, he said that plan to import one million tons of wheat would be painful for the government. International wheat prices are touching an 11-year high amid squeezed supplies.

He added that Australian crop had declined to 14-15m tons as compared to 26m tons last year, while Russia is planning to impose export duty on wheat. Moreover, 67 per cent of the US crop is reported to have been sold.

The government will have to heavily subsidise one million tons of imported wheat as world wheat prices hover between $450-470 per ton. The government has to import it at any cost, otherwise, consumers would face problems in November and December, he said, urging the government to allow private sector to import wheat.

He stated that current wheat crisis had been caused by various factors, like wrong estimation of crop size of 23.5 million tons. The TCP later corrected the figure to 22.5 million tons, rising use of wheat in poultry feed, heavy smuggling of wheat to neighboring countries and massive hoarding by market forces.

He said millers are indulging in slow grinding, the traders have put on hold stocks and growers have joined hands to go slow in releasing wheat in anticipation of higher prices.

He said exporters or member traders do not have any stocks, except minor trading stocks available. He said exporters had shipped less than half a million tons of wheat abroad which they had stocked six months back.

Chairman, Karachi Wholesalers’ Grocers Association (KWGA), Anis Majeed said that Pakistan had faced wheat crisis because of wrong policies of the government. He said at the time of harvesting, the government opened up wheat export and both the government and exporters made a bee-line with farmers for procuring wheat. As a result, farmers preferred selling wheat to exporters.

“Wheat production for this season is around 21 million tons and not 22.2 million tons as claimed by the TCP or 23.5 million tons as announced by the federal government,” Anis said.

He said that atta prices now depend on supply of wheat to the mills by the provincial governments. But it seems that prices may remain stable depending upon frequent wheat supplies.

Mills in Sindh are now getting 153,000 tons per month as compared with 106,000 tons. The demand of mills ranges between 300,000 and 325,000 tons.

In July, atta no 2.5, atta fine mill and chakki were selling at Rs16, Rs18 and Rs19 per kg, respectively. The 10 kg fine atta bag was available at Rs160 in July.

The government, which in yet to come out of a political turmoil, has so far done nothing to protect the interests of general public by controlling the soaring atta rates.

Even if the rates come down by Re1 per kg in all varieties in the coming days, the consumers would still be the losers keeping in view rupees two to four per kg increase in the last two months.

Even till today all efforts to recover the stockpiling of wheat and controlling its smuggling to neighboring countries have yet to bear fruit.