KARACHI: Flour millers on Thursday refused to lift official wheat released by the Sindh government, claiming the grain is of substandard quality and unfit for human consumption.

On Oct 7, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had approved the release of government wheat at Rs12,500 per 100kg bag from Oct 15, aimed at stabilising skyrocketing flour prices and ensuring availability of the commodity in the province.

However, former chairman of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), Sindh Zone, Chaudhry Aamir Abdullah, told Dawn that association members at a general body meeting held on Thursday decided not to use official wheat for grinding.

He said millers had visited the Sindh government’s warehouse in Landhi, where they found around 15 per cent of the grain, out of 1.3 million 100kg bags, was consumable.

He feared that this was the same four-year-old grain which the flour millers had rejected earlier over poor quality.

The PFMA representative urged the Sindh Food Department to segregate the wheat so that millers could lift only good quality grain instead of the entire quantity of substandard wheat available at the warehouse.

As the new crop in Sindh will arrive in March/April, he said a wheat crisis was brewing as the province needs a large quantity of the grain to meet demand for the next four to five months.

Another way forward, Chaudhry Aamir said, is to allow millers to import wheat, whose landed cost is now Rs105 per kg, while consumers will get flour at Rs130 per kg at retail shops.

Food Department officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2026