Flour price increases, chakki atta may reach Rs150 per kg

KARACHI, Dec 25 (SABAH): The retail prices of flour are set to rise further after millers raised the rates by up to Rs11 per kg just three months ahead of the new crop’s arrival in Sindh and Punjab.

In Sindh, millers have increased the price of flour no. 2.5 to Rs115 per kg from Rs104 a week ago and Rs96 last month.

Similarly, the prices of fine and super fine varieties increased to Rs118 from Rs108 per kg a week ago and Rs105 last month. The chakki flour price has risen to Rs140 per kg from Rs120 a month ago.

The Sindh government fixed the rate of flour no. 2.5 at Rs650 for a 10kg bag (or Rs65 a kilogram) and the millers are getting subsidised wheat at Rs5,825 per 100kg to provide relief to the masses. But this subsidy was not being passed on to citizens.

The provincial government had 7.5m tonnes of wheat in its stock in the first week of this month, enough to supply flour to the people at subsidised rates until March 2023.

The government had set a target of procuring 1.4m tonnes of wheat in the current season. It procured one million tonnes from farmers and 400,000 tonnes from the state-run Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco).

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan spent $2.24bn to import around 6.92m tonnes of wheat from July 2020 to November this year to bridge the demand and supply gap.

During the first five months (July to November) of the current fiscal year, wheat imports stood at 1.1m tonnes ($460m) compared to 1.023m tonnes ($340m) a year ago. The average per-tonne price of grain stood at $419 during the five months compared to $332 in the year-ago period.