HYDERABAD: Leaders of the business and trade communities have expressed their grave concern over the persisting shortage of wheat, and warned that a flour crisis may hit the country after a couple of months if immediate action is not taken in this regard.
Both the federal and Sindh government should take practical measures to ensure availability of quality food to people at affordable rates, they said.
Calling for an immediate inspection of wheat stocks, they proposed that government should allow duty-free, subsidy-free imports by the private sector immediately “because the situation is heading for a full-blown food security crisis by Dec 2026 or Jan 2027’’.
Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders & Small Industry (HCSTSI) President Nadeem Ahmed Siddiqui, Senior Vice President Mohammad Fahad Mian and Vice President Irfan Arbiani said in a statement that the governments were supposed to take timely decisions before a shortage could evolve into a crisis.
At this stage, the federal government should allow the private sector to import wheat under a clear, transparent and non-discriminatory policy to cover domestic requirements, improve supply and help keep flour prices at reasonable levels.
They urged the Sindh government to go for an immediate inspection of wheat stocks present in food department’s warehouses, segregate substandard and unfit wheat, and ensure that flour mills received only good-quality wheat.
They said the burden of uncertain wheat supplies and policy delays should not be passed on to consumers in the form of expensive flour, adding that flour mills also should not be made to suspend or curtail production due to wheat shortage.
They said that timely planning was essential to safeguard the next wheat harvest and meet food requirements.
They called upon the federal and Sindh governments to announce an ‘action plan’ without any delay. The plan should cover verification of wheat stocks, permission for private-sector imports, supply of quality wheat (to millers) and measures to stabilise flour prices.
Yaser Malik, the chairman of the FPCCI subcommittee on flour mills, said in his statement that Sindh’s estimated wheat availability for 2026-27 is 4.84m tonnes against a demand of 6.53m tonnes, which shows a shortfall of 1.69m tonnes. He said national production was estimated at 27.5m tonnes against a target of 29.7m tonnes, a shortfall of 2.2m tonnes.
He said that Sindh government has only 346,414 tonnes in its stocks and even with 190,000 tonnes from Passco and 300,000 tonnes of planned imports, total stock would be only 836,414 tonnes, “not sufficient for the next five months i.e. till the arrival of the new crop’’.
“We are heading towards a full-blown food security crisis by December-January,” he warned, and advised the federal government not to repeat the mistake of importing wheat through the TCP alone.
Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2026
