Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin was informed that the availability of public wheat stocks as of 25th January 2022 including imported stock stood at 4,587,602 metric tonnes, amid concern of higher wheat flour price in Quetta.

During the meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee presided over by him on Wednesday, he was informed that the total stock including imported wheat stock stood at 3,929,252 metric tonnes, while there is remaining import of 658,350 metric tonnes by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) out of awarded 1.910 million metric tonnes.

The meeting was further informed that wheat stock is sufficient for 115 days, adding that Punjab has voluntarily enhanced the wheat sowing target to 16.779 million acres from the assigned target of 16.210 million acres.

The meeting was informed that sugar prices of wheat flour are higher in Quetta, which would ease after the daily release of wheat by all the provincial governments. The meeting was informed that 20kg flour bag was being sold in Quetta at Rs1,450 compared to the other cities between Rs1,100 and 1,130.

The meeting was also told that the demand-supply gap of pulses was being met through import. Upon this, the meeting directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) to carefully monitor the international price movement of pulses and take corrective measures with the help of all the stakeholders to prevent undue price hike of pulses in the country.

The meeting was informed that domestic gram production is 234,000tonnes compared to last year's production of 498,000tonnes, while consumption is estimated around 600-650,000tonnes, while maash production has decreased by 15.9 percent to 5.8 thousand tonnes against last year production of 6.9 thousand tonnes and consumption is estimated around 170-175,000tonnes.

The meeting was further informed that masoor local production is 4.1 thousand tonnes against last year production of 4.9, whereas, consumption is around 140-150,000tonnes.

The Ministry of Industries and Production was directed to monitor the sugar price and its supply position in the country and take corrective measures for price stability.

The Government of Balochistan was asked to strictly monitor the price and supply of essential items and ensure their availability at a fair price in line with the other provinces. The sugar prices in Karachi and Quetta are higher and are expected to ease after the arrival of new products in the market.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on January 30, 2022.