2021-2022
The Auditor General of Pakistan published a study on wheat and food security which is of importance to understand the present wheat crisis across the country.
Excerpts–During recent months, the government has announced several measures to address the issue of food production. Still, the present wheat crisis has taken a serious turn, with highly inflationary trends seen in wheat flour prices. Mismatches between estimation of the support price and on ground escalation of input prices has often resulted in off the tangent supply responses…
–On the consumer end, atta availability is unpredictable through a host of domestic factors including, prices varying across the country, potential smuggling and unplanned mushroom growth of flour mills concentrated on the very outskirts of Punjab rather than densely populated centers. Furthermore, there is limited capacity for storage of wheat leading to exercising the option of import of wheat depleting forex reserves and leading to further escalation of atta prices for the consumers.
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