Punjab sets condition for releasing wheat to mills

LAHORE: The Punjab Food Department will begin releasing wheat to flour mills only if the grain beco­mes costlier in the open market.

A senior food official tells Dawn that the grain rates in the open market in the province are stable so far, while flour millers are also holding sufficient stock of their own. Therefore, a decision on the release of the commodity to the mills from official storages will be taken by end of September when the flour industry will have exhausted most of its reserves, the official says.

There are over 1,000 flour mills in the province, many of which depend on the official wheat quota for their operation.

The current market price of a 20-kilogramme flour bag is Rs1,150, which is expected to fall by around Rs150 per bag if and when the government begins releasing wheat at subsidised rates.

The official hopes that the issue price of the official wheat will be around Rs1,875 per 40kg, while in the open market it is being traded around Rs2,000 per 40kg.

The department has more than four million tonnes of wheat to meet staple food requirements of the province throughout the year. It will provide about 22,000 tonnes to the mills on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, the department has begun releasing wheat to Khyber Pakhtun­khwa. It had procured one million tonnes on behalf of the KP government.