KARACHI: Flour millers on Saturday urged the Sindh government to issue the delayed wheat sale price notification.

Punjab government has already announced the wheat sale price 15 days back.

Talking to Dawn, Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Sindh Chairman Jawed Yousuf said that last year the provincial government had fixed the issue price of wheat in August and started releasing the grain from early September. This year the Sindh Food Department has yet to declare any wheat sale price, he added.

To resolve the issue, a PFMA delegation had met with Secretary Food Department Nawaz Shaikh two days ago. The secretary said that he had sent the summary of wheat issue price of Rs3,150 per 100 kg bag (with polypropylene bag) and Rs3,250 (with jute bag) to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for approval, said Mr Yousuf. The food department would provide one million tonnes of wheat to flour millers this season due to sufficient stocks of 1.7m tonnes, he added.

Mr Yousuf said millers were procuring wheat from the open market which is arriving from interior Sindh and Punjab. However, wheat stocks in the open market are drying. As a result, the price of 100 kg bag wheat bag has soared to Rs 3,450 from Rs 3,350 a month back. Millers have also increased the price of flour no 2.5 to Rs38 from Rs37 per kg, followed by price of fine flour and maida (super fine flour) to Rs40 from Rs39 per kg.

“Flour price may further come under pressure in case wheat issue price is not notified and released to millers,” he said. The PFMA chief said the overall wheat storage capacity of provincial food department godowns is 640,000m tonnes.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2018