ISLAMABAD: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has noted with concern that prices of wheat flour in Pakistan had increased at near-record highs.

Even above-average 2021 harvest and high level of imports in recent months were not able to contain the upward price pressure derived from right market availabilities after the below-average outputs between 2018 and 2020 and high level of exports in 2019.

The latest issue of FAO’s Food Price Monitoring and Analysis put Pakistan high on ‘price warning level’, stating that overall, September wheat flour quotations at near-record levels in most markets of the country after recurrent increases since mid-2020.

In an effort to curb further price increases, the government approved in June 2021, the importation of 3 million tons of wheat for the 2021-22 marketing year as part of a strategy to replenish stocks. If this materialises, the imported quantities will be close to last year’s high level and the highest level since 2008-09, according to the report.

The report says that international wheat prices continued to increase markedly, while rice prices increased slightly and trends for maize remained mixed.

While speaking at the World Food Day event in Islamabad on Friday, Minister for National Food Security and Research, Syed Fakhr Imam emphasised the need to increase awareness about safe and nutritious foods, and encourage the stakeholders to produce more nutritious food sustainably and manage food waste.

He said the government’s farmer friendly and pro-export policies and financial assistance to vulnerable population through Ehsas has helped them during the hard times of Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: “We have to adopt an evidence-based approach to policy-making, by considering diverse areas impacting food systems including agriculture, education, environment, water, social protection and finance.”

The theme of this year’s World Food Day, “Our actions are our future,” calls on everyone to be a food hero contributing to the transformation of agri-food systems for Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life, leaving no one behind.

FAO Representative in Pakistan, Florence Rolle spoke on the occasion, and said that the Covid-19 pandemic has off tracked to meet our commitments to end world hunger and malnutrition.

Between 720 and 811 million people in the world faced hunger, and nearly 2.37 billion people did not have access to adequate food in 2020 – an increase of 320 million people in just one year. No region of the world has been spared.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2021