Imported wheat arrives but flour prices stay high

A 51,000-tonne cargo of imported wheat that berthed at Karachi Port on 28 October pulled open-market wheat down to Rs130 a kilogram from Rs140, but consumers are paying unchanged retail prices for flour, naan and chapati, according to rates published by Dawn and ProPakistani.

A second vessel carrying 58,132 tonnes was due at Karachi on Tuesday, 3 November.

Traders are still quoting different rates. Wholesalers put the average wheat price at Rs132 a kilogram, while flour millers said Rs136 to Rs137, ProPakistani reported.

Mill prices have fallen since early October. Flour No 2.5, maida and fine flour are being sold by mills at Rs156, Rs168 and Rs171 a kilogram, against Rs161, Rs173 and Rs176 in the first week of October. ProPakistani reported that millers had first raised flour prices by Rs20 a kilogram and then cut them before the imported grain arrived.

The retail shelf has not moved. Flour No 2.5 sells for Rs170 to Rs180 a kilogram, maida for Rs185 to Rs190, and fine flour also Rs185 to Rs190.

Tandoor prices are unchanged: chapati at Rs20, naan at Rs30 to Rs35, and sheermal, taftaan and qulcha at Rs90 to Rs110. A tandoor owner told ProPakistani that liquefied petroleum gas at Rs500 to Rs550 a kilogram had wiped out the benefit of cheaper flour, and said another gas price rise would make it hard to keep the oven running.

Wholesaler Rauf Ibrahim said regulators had failed to hold down retail prices even as open-market wheat fell. He said the planned import of 750,000 tonnes would not close a gap he put at more than two million tonnes until the Sindh and Punjab crop arrives between March and May, and urged the government to let private companies and millers import. Workers earning under Rs50,000 a month, he said, were struggling to cover food.

Figures from the Sensitive Price Index for the week ending 29 October put Karachi and Hyderabad at the top of the flour table. A 20-kilogram bag costs up to Rs3,540 in Karachi against a national average of Rs3,200, and Rs3,360 to Rs3,400 in Hyderabad. Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and other Punjab cities range from Rs2,200 to Rs3,333.

For a 10-kilogram wheat bag, Sukkur was highest at Rs1,488, followed by Peshawar at Rs1,469, Hyderabad at Rs1,453, Islamabad and Rawalpindi at Rs1,453 on average, and Karachi at Rs1,440. Sargodha was lowest at Rs1,223, Bahawalpur at Rs1,266, and Faisalabad and Sialkot at Rs1,300.

Fine flour was dearest in Hyderabad and Quetta at Rs187 a kilogram, then Karachi at Rs185 and Islamabad at Rs183, with other cities between Rs147 and Rs180. A miller said Karachi pays more partly because the city does not grow wheat and draws supplies from the rest of Sindh.