KARACHI, Sept 23: Sindh Food Minister Mr Arif Mustafa Jatoi has summoned senior officials of Food Department, wheat millers and Chakkiwalas on Friday to prepare what the officials say Ramazan package for consumers.

Mr Khalid Masood who heads the Sindh chapter of Pakistan Flour Mills Association told Dawn that the millers would raise the issue of wheat shortage with the minister.

Officials said the minister would ask the millers why they have failed to lower the ex-mill prices of wheat flour to Rs12.50 per kg.

They said the meeting may also decide the price level for the wheat flour being produced by chakkiwalas and see to it if an increase in their allocation of subsidized wheat can achieve this goal.

They said that the meeting would also discuss Ramazan Package or a set of initiatives to ensure that the prices of wheat flour and its by-products do not rise during the holy month. Ramazan will start from the middle of October.

Food Director Dr Tanveer Qureshi told Dawn that the department had not shelved its plan to get published the list of 400 selected points where wheat flour is being sold at Rs12.50 per kg.

"I assure you I will get that list published within days," he said when asked had the department shelved the plan for making public the names and addresses of the sale points where, according to the millers, wheat flour is selling at Rs12.50 per kg.

The Food Department raised the quota of Karachi-based millers from 25,000 tons in August to 40,000 tons in September in subsidized wheat being supplied to the millers.

The department did this after securing a firm assurance from the millers that they will sell wheat flour at an ex-mill price of Rs12.50 per kg initially through selected sale points and then across-the-board. But the millers, by their own confession, are selling wheat flour at a much higher price.

"Currently, the millers are selling an 80kg bag of wheat flour for Rs1020 to Rs1050 on an average," said Mr Khalid Masood. This means the ex-mill price of wheat is still at Rs12.75-Rs13.12 per kg. Market sources say some millers are selling an 80kg bag of flour for Rs1060 which translates into Rs13.25 per kg.

The millers do claim that at selected sale points or stalls they are selling flour at Rs12.5 per kg but in the absence of a proper list of these points it is difficult to ascertain their claim.

The millers cite wheat shortage as a key impediment to lowering of wheat flour prices. They say that the ratio of 50:50 being used for blending Russian wheat with domestic wheat is also forcing them to buy more of domestic wheat from the open market at higher price. In the open market, the price of wheat is currently ruling at Rs1190-1195 per 100 kg, according to Mr Khalid Masood.

Food Department officials say that the Friday meeting would decide on how to change the blending ratio. The millers want the department to give them 80 per cent domestic wheat and only 20 per cent of the wheat imported from Russia because they say that Russian wheat has higher moisture content.

The Friday meeting may also decide how much wheat the millers will get in total from the Food Department in October. Whereas the millers estimate the minimum required quantity they need to produce wheat flour to meet local demand at 85,000 tons, some officials put it at 70,000 tons. But the officials say that the department would increase wheat quota for the millers for October only after they lower the wheat flour prices immediately.