Retail, wholesale food price disparities

While already struggling to manage high utility bills, consumers have yet to get any significant price relief despite a drop in world prices of raw materials and edible items, rupee recovery against the dollar, and low transportation costs. On one hand, many manufacturers can be blamed for not passing on the full impact of a lower cost of production. On the other hand, retailers are equally responsible for selling items at the old higher prices, especially pulses and wheat flour. The federal government has mainly focused on handling sugar and wheat mafias, hoarders, and speculators to curb their smuggling to neighbouring countries. These measures have brought an instant price fall in the sweetener to Rs130-150 per kg from over Rs200 a month back. Consumers also expected the same price drop in wheat and flour varieties after the crackdown, but it did not materialise. Heavy import of wheat by the private sector and a good local wheat crop that arrived in March and April this year also did not help much. As per the July-October FY24 data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), import of wheat stood at 556,903 tonnes as compared to 1.099 million tonnes in the same period last fiscal year, depicting a drop in the average per tonne (APT) price to $299 per tonne from $418. A rise in rupee value against the dollar from September 5 till October 16, 2023, had further brought down the landed cost of imported grain.