Govt asked to increase wheat quota for mills

LAHORE: The Punjab government has been asked to increase the wheat quota for mills with a view to meeting demand of flour in the province.

Unlike in the past, as flour mills were not allowed to buy wheat during the government’s procurement drive, flour is being made from the wheat being released by the Punjab Food Department to sell 20kg flour bag at control rate of Rs 860 and 10kg bag at Rs 430. However, release of about 17,000 tonne wheat daily is not sufficient to meet the demand of flour in the market, said a group of flour mills owners who met with newly appointed Secretary Food Asad Gillani here Wednesday.

Some mills are getting only about one fourth of their demand from the Food Department under sanctioned wheat quota. This reduced quantity of wheat forced them to buy wheat from open market which is about Rs 400 to Rs 450 per maund costlier than the official wheat being released to flour mills, said Khaleeque Arshad and Majid Abdullah, leaders of Progressive Flour Mill Group.

The district administration is not allowing flour mills to sell flour grinding from costly wheat as per rates of open market, they said, adding this situation may lead to another crisis of wheat flour. A number of shopkeepers have been penalised for selling flour prepared with private wheat, they said, adding the government should not ignore the ground realities in this regard.

In order to meet demand of flour, government should increase daily wheat quota to 25,000 tonne from 17,000 tonne, they said. Or flour mills should be allowed to sell flour in 25kg and 15 kg bags in line with the price trend in the private market, they stressed. The flour mills are left with no option but to sell wheat in 25kg and 15kg bag to meet demand of their customers. This flour packing is being marketed under a notification issued by provincial Food Department itself, they claimed.

Moreover, they observed, there should be no restrictions on flour mills working in the border districts of Lahore to market flour bags in the provincial metropolis. They also recommended the food secretary taking drastic steps for early import of wheat as the country had been short of about two million tonnes of grains. The sooner the imports are done, the better to make sure smooth availability of flour to masses at reasonable rates, they observed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), in a statement issued on Wednesday, expressed the hope that flour supply would be smoothened in the market in a few days as most of functional mills started grinding wheat in the province. As mills started selling over 0.5 million 20kg bags in the market daily, the dearth of flour would be ended, said Asim Raza, chairman, PFMA.