The price of flour has started to climb once more following an increase in wheat prices. This rise comes after a brief period of lower flour prices due to the arrival of the new wheat crop.
In the Lahore and Rawalpindi divisions, the price of a bag of flour has surged by up to 150 rupees. According to sources, the cost of a 20 kg bag of flour in Lahore has increased from 1650 rupees to 1700 rupees, while in Rawalpindi, it has jumped from 1850 rupees to 1900 rupees. Similarly, the price of a 10 kg bag of flour has gone up from 800 rupees to 850 rupees.
When contacted, Chairman of Pakistan Flour Mills Association Punjab, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmad Mattu, said that due to the successful strategy of Ms. Maryam Nawaz, twenty-kilo bags of flour were reduced to twenty-three hundred and then seventeen hundred on June 1.
Due to this, people breathed a sigh of relief, but this decrease in the price of flour started increasing again within a month. Wheat reached Rs. 2700 per 40 kg in Gujarat. As a result, the bag of flour worth Rs 1500 to Rs 1700 has gone up to Rs 18,900.
He said that there are fixed electricity charges on flour mill owners. The government should immediately meet with the flour mill owners and stop the dumping of flour; otherwise, a bag of flour will become more expensive this week as well.
He said that in Rawalpindi, including Islamabad, Attock, Jhelum, Chakwal, Murree, and Talagang, wheat was reaching 2900 rupees per 40 kg before Eid, but on June 30, 2024, wheat has increased to 3400 kg in the open market.
Asim Raza, Chairman of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association, explained that the rise in flour prices is a direct result of the increased wheat prices. In Lahore, the price of wheat has climbed from 2900 rupees to 2950 rupees per maund, and in the Rawalpindi division, it has reached 3050 rupees per maund.
Furthermore, flour mill owners are concerned that the price of flour might continue to rise in the coming days.