October 04, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 21, 1428

KARACHI, Oct 3: Millers in Karachi have complained of reduced supply of wheat from government stocks, and said they are purchasing wheat from the open market at Rs15 a kg, but are being asked to sell wheat flour at Rs13 a kg during Ramazan.

“We were asked by the Sindh chief minister on Wednesday to set up stalls for selling wheat flour at Rs13 a kg at least in the month,’’ Chowdhry Unsar Javed, chairman, Sindh Chapter of Pakistan Flour Mills Association, informed Dawn after a meeting.

Millers said they were getting hardly 70,000 tons of wheat from government stocks in a month for 78 mills, and about 155,000 tons of wheat is being purchased in a month from the open market at Rs15 a kg.

Here what is worrying the consumers is a fresh price spiral of wheat flour in the market for last few days.

“We hardly get 43 per cent of our wheat requirement from government stocks,’’ Unsar Javed said and pointed out that bulk of wheat, which is about 57 per cent, is being purchased from open market where prices have again shot up to Rs1,500 for a 100 kg bag.Wheat and wheat flour prices eased down a bit after government announced import of one million tons and it started releasing wheat from its stocks on Sept 7 which was increased on Sept 14. But still wheat from government stocks is being supplied at Rs465 for 40 kgs on which a subsidy of Rs250 is being given during the month of Ramazan which is not sufficient for mills.

Wheat prices in the open market started crawling up again in last few days from Rs13 a kg to Rs15 on Wednesday. Unsar Javed attributed this rise in wheat prices to a drop in supplies from the Punjab.

“Punjab wheat is now going northwards to Torkham and beyond,’’ he made his point.

Millers endorse Unsar’s perception and are convinced that wheat from Punjab is still moving to Afghanistan and beyond in large quantities despite government ban on wheat and flour export.

There is a fear that Punjab government may seek a ban on inter-provincial movement of wheat to ensure supply of wheat within the province for next four to five months when new crop will be harvested.

But this inter-provincial ban on wheat movement, if it comes, would severely hit Karachi and wheat flour prices would exceed Rs20 a kg in November and beyond.

The Sindh government is left with hardly half a million tons of wheat in its stocks which should be sufficient for next four months.

But as Pakistan’s international borders are porous and unmanageable, so are the boundaries and walls of government wheat warehouses from where wheat passes out to private storages.