January 17, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 07, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 16: The rush of buyers outside flour mills and stalls has subsided since the wheat supply from the food department has improved under the supervision of Rangers, claimed flour millers on Wednesday.

Buyers had made a beeline for flour in view of lingering fear of a wheat and flour crisis coupled with uncertain situation in the future. The incidents of violence and uncertain political conditions after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had caused panic-stricken people to buy more and more flour bags and build up stocks.

During the first two weeks around 1,500 to 2,000 people used to wait in queues outside a mill to buy flour bags. However, the number of buyers has considerably come down with the improvement in the wheat supply situation. Now around 500 to 600 people turn up daily outside a flour mill.

“Some mills see 150 to 200 buyers hardly a day now,” said Sindh Zone Chairman of Pakistan Flour Mills Association Iqbal Dawood.

He was of the view that the buyers’ presence outside flour mills and stalls had declined by 20 to 50 per cent. He said that currently many buyers preferred to have one bag of 10-kilo flour unlike their previous demand for two or more bags. “One kilo flour is enough to make at least 10 chappatis (unleavened flat bread) and perhaps people have realized it is better to have one bag instead of too many,” he remarked.

Wheat supply position

Recalling the improvement in wheat supply position during the past couple of months, he said that each mill was getting 2,280 bags of 100kg wheat a week in November 2007 which increased to 2,730 bags per week in December. The supply improved further in January and each mill received 3,150 bags last week.

He said that the situation would get even better in the next two weeks during which each mill would be getting 4,300 wheat bags of 100kg per week for grinding.

“The flour crisis will be over by the next week in case wheat supply from the food department remains stable,” he claimed.

Market sources said that usually mill owners used to extract maida, suji and refined atta from wheat to produce Atta No.2.5 and the same variety was being supplied to the utility stores.

However, consumers started getting good quality flour almost equal to chakki atta quality since the deployment of Rangers at the flour mills.

Mr Dawood said the Rangers had been monitoring the flow of wheat and flour supplies. On Wednesday, the Rangers had personally shifted wheat to flour mills in a convoy of 20 vehicles, he added.

He said that even retailers were lifting flour directly from the mills instead of purchasing from the wholesale markets. As a result, supply of flour in the city had improved a lot. He said even the Rangers were checking the quality of flour being produced by the flour mills besides keeping the personal record of purchaser.

Former PFMA Sinch Zone Chairman Chaudhry Ansar Jawed claimed that hardly 10 per cent purchasers were seen outside the flour mills. At many mills, long queues of people had just disappeared.

He said that so far 200,000 tonnes to 250,000 tonnes of imported wheat had landed at an average rate of $500 per tonne while an equal size of consignment had been in the pipeline. The government had planned to import 1.5 million tonnes of wheat to curb the shortfall and the rising prices, he said.