LAHORE, Jan 18: Flour supplies started trickling in on Friday to retailers, registering a marginal improvement in availability in some parts of the city.

The retailers and millers, however, claimed that situation would only normalise by the last week of current month, when supply pipeline was filled up and retailers were able to pile up their stocks.

“There is certainly some kind of improvement in supplies and normal channels have started restoring,” says Ch Muhammad Azmat of the Lahore Karyana Merchants Association. Things have only started improving and it is hard to quantify them at this stage with certainty.

But one can claim around 10 to 15 per cent improvement in overall situation, he said. “The retailers are now getting around 20 per cent of their demand and getting them within a span of one to two days. Till last week, the supplies had completely died.”

But Rao Akram Khan of the Lahore Karyana Merchants Association maintains that the overall situation has still not improved. He insists that supplies have to be sustained at a substantial level for more than 15 days before some marked improvement could be claimed. “It is still more about claims and counter-claims rather than any improvement on grounds. The Food Department is providing supplies to millers during Muharram holidays. Should that happen and the millers flood the market with three-day cumulative supplies, the situation could improve markedly,” he maintained.

Haji Muhammad Bashir of Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) thinks that situation in the cities has already started normalising and should improve in the next week.

So far, the government is concentrating on main cities. Once the situation improves in cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan, the rest of the province will be easier to handle. The department and millers plan to flood market in the last week of January and help dealers and retailers build stocks.