MIRPURKHAS: Flour mills in Mirpurkhas have jacked up flour price to Rs65 per kilo from previous rate of Rs42 per kg, leaving behind all other mills in Sindh which are selling the staple food item at Rs56 per kg, though still higher than the original rate by Rs14.

The mills and chakkis across the province are steadily increasing flour price despite getting wheat at subsidised rate on the pretext of shortage of wheat in the godowns of the food department, which had not procured wheat last year.

Mirpurkhas Commissioner Abdul Waheed Shaikh had warned owners of flour mills at a recent meeting to bring down the price and ensure sale of flour at the original Rs42 per kilo but they ignored the warning and instead started hoarding the grain in their declared and undeclared godowns with complete impunity, said sources.

Mirpurkhas Chakki Association chairman Liaquat Qureshi told media persons on Saturday that under a “conspiracy” hoarders and flour mills, including a provincial minister, had bought wheat at low rate in open market last year and stored it away in their secret warehouses to earn windfall profits at the time of shortage of the grain. At the same time the Sindh government decided last year not to purchase wheat crop as it was bound to and sowed the seed for this crisis.

He said the government was providing subsidised wheat mostly to flour mills and giving the grain in less quantity to chakki owners. Still, the flour mills were supplying flour at high rate to retailers to take undue advantage of the situation while chakki owners had no wheat stocks to grind into flour and help bring down flour prices, he said.

Hence, he said, most chakkis had shut down in the city and flour mill owners were allowed to earn windfall profits. No authority was ready to conduct raids on the godowns of flour mills where huge stocks of wheat were lying for sale at exorbitant rate, he said.

He urged Sindh chief minister, chief secretary and Mirpurkhas commissioner to take immediate notice of wheat hoarding by the flour mills and wheat traders and recover the grain’s stocks by carrying out raids on their declared and undeclared warehouses.

Wheat shortage led to flour price hike: SCA

HYDERABAD: Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has said that price of wheat flour has gone up to Rs56 per kilo in the wake of reports of wheat shortage in government godowns.

Now, hoarders had jumped in to take advantage of the grain’s shortage which was mainly caused by Sindh government’s no-procurement policy last year, said Zahid Bhurgari, general secretary of the chamber, in a letter to Sindh chief minister to draw his attention to the problems afflicting agriculture sector in the province on Saturday.

He said that contrary to Sindh, Punjab had started to enhance wheat production to strengthen food security by offering its growers subsidy for buying farm machinery. A recent advert in newspapers placed by Punjab government called for provision of machineries like zero-tillage drill, dry-sowing drill, water-sowing drill, wheat-bed planter etc, which showed the provincial government’s commitment to improve its farm sector, he said.

He said that Punjab government had offered incentives to growers to raise wheat production with the help of modern machinery and equipment and get higher yields.

He urged Sindh chief minister to emulate his Punjab counterpart and provide same machinery to growers in Sindh on same terms and conditions to help them enhance wheat yield. The Sindh government should give priority to it, he said.

He said that market price of wheat had gone up to Rs1,900 per 40kg while the new crop would start arriving in markets after at least four months. Currently, sowing of wheat was under way in Sindh and it would continue till Dec 15.

He feared that the grain’s price might climb further to Rs2,200 per 40kg in open market till the new crop’s harvest in March. Given prevailing price in open market, the support price would be unrealistic, he said.

He feared that since the support price was unreasonable the Sindh government would be unable to achieve procurement target. Looking at the current situation, the chamber urged the government to fix the support price at Rs4,000 per 100kg in order to help the government meet procurement target.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2019