The retail price of flour is expected to increase further after millers increased their prices by up to Rs11 per kg just three months before the arrival of the new crop in Sindh and Punjab,
The price of flour no. 2.5 in Sindh has increased from Rs104 per kg to Rs115 per kg from Rs96 per kg last month.
The cost of fine and superfine varieties also jumped, going from Rs108 per kilogram last week to Rs105 last month to Rs118. The cost of chakki flour has increased from Rs120 per kg to Rs140 today.
The Chairman of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) for Sindh, Aamir Abdullah stated that the rate of flour no. 2.5 and the fine and super fine types had been at their peak after the price of a 100kg wheat bag increased to Rs10,200 in the open market from Rs9,300 a week ago. In the previous month, the bag cost Rs8,300.
He disputed the notion that wheat smuggling was to blame for rising prices and cited open-market dealers who, in his view, had been gradually releasing grain to the market in order to command higher prices until the new crop was ready.
The Sindh government, according to Abdullah, had been giving each mill 10,000 wheat bags per month, which was not enough given the increased demand for flour throughout the winter.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reports that from July 2020 to November of this year, Pakistan spent $2.24 billion to buy over 6.92 million tons of wheat to close the supply and demand imbalance.
