Sindh millers slash flour prices by Rs10 per kg ahead of Ramazan
Business
The announcement comes after meeting between the PFMA and the Sindh food department
KARACHI (Web Desk) - Flour millers have announced Rs10 cut in per kilogramme price of various varieties of flour ahead of Ramazan, passing on some respite to the consumers after recent price crisis.
Pakistan Flour Mills Association Sindh Zone has reduced the price of 50kg bag of flour No 2.5 to Rs6,400 (Rs128 per kg) from Rs6,900 and fine flour and maida to Rs6,500 per 50 kg bag (Rs130 per kg) from Rs7,000.
The announcement came after a successful meeting between the PFMA delegation and the Sindh Food Department officials in which it was assured to growers and millers that wheat-loaded trucks arriving from the interior into Karachi would not be seized.
Millers have complained that the food department officials forcibly impounded trucks and unloaded wheat at government godowns in Landhi to achieve wheat procurement targets.
The start of wheat arrival from the new crop in the open market is a major reason for the downward trend in prices of flour.
The per day consumption of wheat in Karachi is approximately 10,000 tonnes but some 3,000-4,000 tonnes are being supplied.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data shows that the rate of 20kg bag of wheat in Karachi jumped to Rs2,900-3,100 during the week ending March 16 from Rs2,800-2,900. Exactly a year back, it was available at Rs1,100-1,440.
Wheat flour prices had surged despite the imports of 2.2 million tonnes costing $876 million in first eight months of current fiscal year as compared to two million tonnes valuing $752m in the same period last year.
