Like clockwork, a wheat price surge now follows a sugar crisis. Why? Because policymakers in this country have infinite faith in their wisdom, and zero respect for the laws of supply and demand.
For more than 12 months, Pakistanis enjoyed flour and roti prices lower than what they were in Q1 2022.
Back when the exchange rate was still under Rs180; back when Russia had just invaded Ukraine and the global commodity crisis had not yet entered full swing.
Unfortunately, this was not the result of some miraculous productivity-led output boom. It was daylight robbery, orchestrated by a ruling junta actively conspiring to steal from growers to keep the price of roti lower at the tandoor.
Yes, the price of roti at the tandoor did fall sharply for a few months. But to what end? When you demolish market prices the way the wheat market has been wrecked over the past 18 months, is it really a surprise that demand shoots through the roof?
And now prices are catching up again. Because the geniuses in Islamabad like to believe that the demand for wheat is purely a function of the number of mouths to feed, whether a roti costs Rs15 or Rs30.
At this point, it feels nauseating to repeat that this spiral follows a crop cycle in which the public sector refused to purchase grain from growers in the name of “deregulation”,but happily financed inventories for millers and factory owners. Do not take our word for it.
Ask the Punjab government, which in its infinite wisdom decided to foot the bill for any investor willing to take a speculative punt on a commodity as liquid as gold, taking advantage of prices that collapsed through the floor.
But let it be known that it is not only the investor who played the wolf in sheep’s clothing. That is not to say they did not gorge themselves on the buffet generously laid out on the taxpayer’s dime.
But accountability cannot stop at the politicians alone. Heads should roll, not just of the royalty who signed off on these harebrained schemes, but also of the Baldrickswho keep dreaming up these “cunning plans.”