Flour Price Cut Fails To Provide Relief To Consumers

News Desk
KARACHI: Flour millers in the metropolis have announced a nominal reduction of Rs3 per kg across various flour varieties, a move dismissed by consumers and market analysts as too insignificant to ease the persistent burden of food inflation.
The adjustments bring the rates for flour No 2.5, maida, and fine flour down to Rs141, Rs149, and Rs152 per kg respectively, though retail and commercial flatbread prices remain stubbornly unchanged.
Industry insiders disclosed that the minor tariff slash is entirely unrelated to the anticipated arrival of 750,000 tonnes of imported wheat intended to stabilize national grain reserves.
Instead, millers attributed the adjustment to the influx of cheap, rice-mixed flour originating from the interior of Sindh, where feed-mill quality rice is reportedly being blended into wheat supplies to lower production overheads.
Despite government interventions aimed at averting an impending food security crisis, open market wheat rates have held firm at Rs125 to Rs130 per kg.
This rigidity in raw material costs means that the paltry Rs3 reduction offers no tangible relief to citizens or commercial roti makers, whose operational overheads had previously surged following months of aggressive price hikes in the grain market.
Economic observers warn that without stringent regulatory oversight and the swift, transparent distribution of imported grain reserves, retail markets will continue to exploit consumers.
Authorities are expected to monitor the incoming wheat shipments closely in the coming weeks to determine if large-scale imports can effectively force a broader correction in flour and bread prices across the province.