LAHORE: The flour millers demand the Punjab Food Department start releasing wheat from its own stocks to keep flour prices stable in the country after drying up of local grain markets.

“It has been six months since the last harvest of wheat in the country because of which grain arrival in local markets is declining fast, leading to apprehensions of price hike of the commodity because of short supplies and unstable flour market,” Punjab chairman of Pakistan Flour Mills Association Chaudhry Iftikhar Mattoo said here on Thursday.

The wheat mafia has become active in the local markets with the increase in share of imported grain to earn extra bucks and the government should take notice of it for the sake of the milling industry as well as ordinary consumers, he said in a statement.

He demanded that the government announce the release price of wheat lying in the food department godowns and make arrangements for immediate release of the stocks to flour millers to keep the flour market stable.

The food department as a major player in the grain market procures a certain quantity of wheat at the harvest of the crop during the months of April and May to ensure the official minimum price of the commodity for the growers and to keep the market stable during wheat dry months, four to five months before the arrival of the new crop. The department sells grain at its cost basis, which includes wheat price and incidental charges, without any profit.

This season it had procured around 4.2 million tonnes of wheat at a rate of Rs3,900 per 40kg from the farmers.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2023