KARACHI, Sept 19: Flour millers and Sindh food department offer conflicting views about the quality of Ukraine wheat being supplied to the flour mills. The government claims that only 50 per cent of quantity consists of Ukraine wheat in the total wheat supply, while millers said that they are getting 70pc of red imported wheat from the department.

Many customers have complained to the retailers about the poor quality of flour being sold in the market as they said that the colour of roti (bread) changes to red. Many mills are involved in making flour from the red wheat instead of blending it with local wheat.

A former chairman of Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Naeem Ahmed Khan Malik said that imported wheat was of inferior quality due to the moisture content ranging between 14-15 per cent, while the local wheat has 9-10 per cent contents.

Because of poor quality of imported wheat, many quality conscious millers had to lift costlier local wheat from the open market for blending with imported wheat for making good quality flour, he said.

He said that during September the Sindh government had decided to provide 47,000 tons of wheat to the Karachi millers, while in January this year the city mills had been given 143,000 tons.

“We are getting one third of the wheat quantity from the food department,” he added.

On the contrary, the deputy director Sindh food department Lal Bux Jatoi said that the share of imported red wheat in the total supply to city flour mills is only 50 per cent and not 70 per cent. According to him, the moisture content in red imported wheat ranges between 13.5 - 14 per cent while the local wheat carries nine per cent moisture.

He claimed that so far there had been no complaints about sub-standard quality of flour in the province.

When asked that the millers complain about short supply of wheat, he said that some 13,500 wheat bags of 100 kg were being provided per week during Sept to 72 mills in Karachi as compared to 11,000 bags in the same period of last year.

The department is providing wheat at the rate of Rs1,932 per 100 kg bag to the flour mills. He claimed that there was no shortage of flour in the province in the month of Ramazan as compared to last year.

The 100 kg wheat bag price surged to Rs2,500-2,525 in the open market on Thursday from Rs2,480 last week, while two weeks back it was available at Rs2,330. The flour millers had pushed up the rate of atta No.2.5 to Rs22.50 per kg last week from Rs21.50 per kg. The rate of atta No.2.5 in the retail markets now ranges between Rs30-32 per kg.

Flour millers had linked the wheat price hike to reduced allocation of wheat quota by the food department. Meanwhile, officials of the Food department raided three flour mills a day back to check wheat and flour stocks.

Mr. Jatoi said he had actually issued show cause notices to three mills, which had excess wheat stocks and were not utilising it on time. At one mill, some 6,000-7,000 wheat bags were found, which had not been grinded. In the second mill, there was no record of sale of atta (flour), while the third miller was making vermicelli instead of flour and the government wheat was lying at the grinding unit.