LAHORE: Flour millers fear a shortage of wheat flour at the start of Ramazan, accusing the Punjab Food Department of reducing the grain quota of the mills located in south Punjab though the new crop has not yet hit the market.

A senior food official, however, downplays the problem, saying that the millers are used to making the mountain of a molehill every year.

Pakistan Flour Mills Association Punjab chairman Tahir Hanif Malik said here on Friday that the official grain quota of the mills situated in the south Punjab had been cut by the food department while harvesting of the wheat crop was weeks away. He said the flour mills were dependent on the release of the official wheat because of unavailability of the commodity in the open market at this time of the year.

The cut in quota, he warned, could create problems for the millers and consequently cause shortage of flour in the market during Ramazan. He demanded that the department should continue supply of wheat from its storages to the south Punjab flour mills for some more days so that the supply of the commodity was not disturbed till the new crop reached the market by mid-April.

The wheat harvesting season in south Punjab districts is likely to begin in the first week of April due to early ripening of the crop as a result of higher temperature this year.

A food department official tells Dawn that the wheat quota of south Punjab mills is reduced each year after mid-March as grain from adjacent Sindh province starts reaching the border districts of Punjab by this time. He says there is nothing new this year.

“The wheat from Sindh has hit Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalnagar and Bahawalpur districts, etc and is available at around Rs2,250 per 40kg (against the official minimum support price of Rs2,200 per 40kg) there right now. In view of this, the wheat quota of these mills has been reduced while that of the central Punjab mills has been increased to maintain the supply and demand balance,” he adds.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022