Flour crisis

Flour prices in Karachi have touched new heights as a kilogram of the commodity is being sold at Rs125

Prices of essential commodities are sky-rocketing. It is an enigma that flour prices are wayward, and there seems to be no administrative control over such an essential staple food. Reports say flour prices in Karachi have touched new heights and a kilogram of the commodity is being sold at Rs125, which is proportionately higher to the price elsewhere in the country. With Rs2,500 per 20kg bag of flour, which saw an escalation of Rs100 in a few days, there is something severely wrong in the biggest metropolitan of Pakistan. With the city home to more than 15% of the country’s populace and hub of production, this fissure of flour price spiral could lead to unrest, furthering socio-economic disparity to new levels.

The point is that the country is gripped in an inflationary trend. Official estimates conveniently put food inflation at around 45%, and this has further dilapidated in the backdrop of the rupee-dollar entanglement. The loss of value of the rupee on a daily basis and the trading of greenback on two and more indices has literally sabotaged microeconomics. But this flour crisis has its genesis in mismanagement, hoarding and black marketing. The provincial bureaucracy, district administrations and the traders are all in it, with the connivance of flour mill owners, who are simply hacking the prices to serve their vested interests.

It is another misfortune that Pakistan despite being an agrarian economy is importing grains. Being one of the biggest importers of wheat in the region from Ukraine, Russia and other sources, Pakistan has a sorry tale to narrate in its food security domain. The onus is on the government to closely scrutinise the upward trend and take to task those who are making life miserable for people when equal opportunities for social mobility, employment and access to cheaper food products are almost unavailable. Food crisis has made even developed societies break up in revulsion, and Karachi and Pakistan are no exception.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26^th, 2022.

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