Islamabad (Commerce Desk) — To reduce rising flour prices in the country and ensure the availability of wheat, all four provinces have demanded more than 2.2 million metric tons of wheat from the federal government, while the federation has initially decided to import around 1 million metric tons of wheat.
A meeting of the Federal Wheat Board was held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for National Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain, where the wheat requirements of the provinces were reviewed.
The meeting decided that provincial governments will issue back-to-back Letters of Credit (LCs) for payments of imported wheat, while in case of any shortfall in payments, the outstanding amount will be recovered from the provinces’ shares under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the average official price of flour has increased by 74 percent over the past year, reaching Rs129 per kilogram, while in Peshawar, the price of flour was recorded at Rs150 per kilogram.
During the meeting, Punjab demanded 1 million metric tons of wheat, Sindh requested 720,000 metric tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa demanded 425,000 metric tons, and Balochistan sought 57,500 metric tons.
The federal government has decided to implement an import plan to improve wheat supplies and stabilize flour prices in the country.