The working of Sindh’s food department is once again under a cloud. The distribution of wheat by department among roller flour mills and owners of chakkis was hit by discrepancies, putting consumers under an additional financial burden in these days of never-ending inflation.

The department allocates wheat quotas crop among flour mills and chakkis in line with its policy that puts flour mills at a disadvantage. Flour mills get a larger chunk of wheat. Atta chakkis are small- and medium-sized businesses and dependent on the department for wheat. Owing to the inadequate quota, they allege, they have to procure grain from the market to meet demand after being cold-shouldered by the food department.

This brings questions of food security and consumers’ economic cost into the limelight since wheat is a staple food. The rural population has always consumed flour produced by chakkis, but over the years, the trend of consuming chakki-produced flour has substantially increased in the urban areas since health experts assert it has fibre and less sugar and carbohydrate content that benefits health.

Chakkis exist in rural and urban areas and sell smaller quantities of flour to consumers. Flour mills supply in bulk, given their commercial stakes across the province. Consumers’ incomes are not increasing proportionately if rising inflation is to be considered.

Wheat is supplied by the government to millers at Rs58.25 per kg, but its shortage is forcing chakki owners to purchase it from the open market at Rs86 per kg

The food department’s wheat allocation policy puts them under an economic burden as they buy expensive flour from chakkis, leaving them high and dry. “Food department must listen to chakki owners’ concern,” said Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Adeel Siddiqui.

According to Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) vice president, chakki businesses should not be discouraged. “Demand for chakki’s flour is increasing as everyone values the importance of whole wheat for its ingredients. But inadequate wheat supplies increase flour prices, undermining the food security of poor consumers,” he contended. He said chakkis serve consumers at the grass-root level for one-two kg of flour, which mills don’t.

“Food department’s performance has never been satisfactory and it remains least concerned about these issues. I fail to understand why the food department doesn’t begin the release of wheat even in June. Why hasn’t the department increased its storage of wheat stocks instead of leaving it exposed to the contamination? This showed how efficiently it deals with this strategic crop that also falls in the domain of the Ministry of Food Security and Research,” he remarked.

The district administrations fix the price per kg of flour, but chakkis find it difficult to keep flour supplies going as per the official rate given the procurement price of wheat from the market and overhead costs of flour production.

Inflation-ridden consumers, including the elderly, line up to buy subsidised flour from fixed points whose numbers remain insufficient. Instead, the exercise remains merely cosmetic. In the case of Hyderabad, the administration had fixed a price of flour in March and since then no official price of flour was fixed, inviting ire from chakki owners who had been protesting against it.

They were questioning the posting of the food official in Hyderabad, where chakki flour price was fixed only in March at Rs72 per kilo retail. Since then, the administration avoided setting it due to the ongoing row between the food department and chakki owners. Sindh food secretary Raja Khurram didn’t respond to Dawn’s queries when contacted.

The food department, which was hit by back-to-back multimillion rupees corruption cases, couldn’t bring a policy shift in quota-based wheat supplies for chakkis and flour mills. Food officials having tainted backgrounds were posted in violation of the Supreme Court’s directives. Why the Sindh government has avoided making wheat procurement and distribution transparent is anybody’s guess.

The food department handles a single wheat crop 365 days every year, and that too was hit by financial embezzlement and anomalies, which is documented. Owing to the insensitivity of the provincial food department, adulteration and contamination of wheat in godowns has become a norm.

The department procures only a specific quantum of wheat Sindh produces. For the last few years, even that quantum was not procured due to favouritism and money minting by those at the helm. The department could not achieve the target of 1.4 million tonnes of procurement in the current season despite the fact procurement, for the first time, started in March this year.

According to chakki owners, consumers in Hyderabad, the largest urban centre after Karachi, faced the dilemma of buying expensive flour because no rate for flour has been fixed yet.

“We mostly depend on procurement of wheat from the open market, and that obviously remains expensive. Its financial impact in terms of overhead cost in the production of flour out of per kilo of wheat is transferred to consumers,” said Haji Mohammad Memon, president of Chakki Owners Welfare Association.

Sindh food department procured wheat in the 2021-22 season for a support price of Rs5,500 per 100kg bag from farmers. Wheat was supplied to chakki owners for Rs5,825 per 100kg (Rs58.25 per kilo) in Oct and Nov 2022. However, open market wheat’s price stood at Rs86 per kg or Rs8,600 per 100kg bag till Nov 3, indicating a substantial difference in wheat’s price.

The available inadequate wheat stocks from Hyderabad’s godowns were being depleted. It was feared wheat supply for chakkis in days to come would become difficult, leaving them at the mercy of the market.

“Open market rates upset everything for us. Since we don’t get the required quantity of wheat from the food department’s godowns, we ultimately turn to the open market,” contended another association representative.

The food department supplied each chakki with 117kgs of wheat for grinding. However, each chakki grinds 200kg of wheat per stone in an hour to produce around 170kg of flour and 30kg of choker (animal feed). If a chakki works eight hours, it requires 1,600kg of wheat in a day with a Rs22.30 per kilo overhead cost. The huge difference in demand and supply is what created the hue and cry.

The food department remained quite generous in supplying wheat to roller flour mills, whose flour is mostly consumed in hotels and restaurants. It lacks taste in bread. Millers extract granulated wheat and super fine flour as by-products of wheat.

Pakistan is importing 300,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia. Large swathes of land in Sindh are still under water due to floods of catastrophic proportions in the July-August period. Growers don’t rule out smaller wheat acreage in the 2022-23 season, which would undermine wheat output. The flour price will again shoot up.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, November 7th, 2022