ISLAMABAD: (July 8, 2022) At a time when the country is facing acute shortage of wheat and the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet has approved import of 0.5 million tons of wheat that would cost the national exchequer $ 439.4 per ton and $ 220 million for total shipment to dollar-starved Pakistan , the government authorities are delaying implementation of a mandatory SRO of Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) to stop use of porous, non- food grade packaging bag causing waste of wheat flour (atta) of value Rs 80 billion every year .
Keeping in view huge loss of wheat flour (atta), PSQCA had issued a mandatory SRO 46 (KE) / 2017 in 2017 to ban the use of non-food grade packing bag for all food items including wheat flour (atta) to stop its waste , but after 7 ; long years, the SRO is yet to be implemented .
The PSQCA SRO made it mandatory to use food grade polypropylene sack having lamination on one side woven surface on other side to maintain flour quality through breathing from woven surface . The use of food grade woven sack not only reduces waste of atta from 3 to 5 percent to 0.05 percent, but most importantly it keeps flour in quality required for good human health.
Had the concerned authorities realized the price the country was paying for their inaction in this case in these hard times when the poor are struggling to get one time food in a day they should have implemented the concerned SRO and saved waste of wheat flour (atta) of worth Rs 50 billion every year.
An official document, a copy made available to NEWSMAN, suggested that Pakistan is 0.786 tons of flour every year of worth Rs 51.5 billion just by not implementing a mandatory SRO of PSQCA to stop of porous , non-food grade bag for handing and transportation of wheat flour.
An official survey suggested that porous and non-food grade packing result in waste of over one kg of flour (atta). The picture taken during the survey and made the part of the story by this correspondent narrates the volume of loss of wheat flour as a result of use of porous and non-food grade packing. The survey report and the picture taken live during the handling/ transportation of wheat flour clearly showed that a 20 kg reduce to 18.6 kg after dusting of flour in the process it goes through from the flour mill to the retail shop.
Pakistan Polypropylene Sack Manufacturers Association (PPSMA) is struggling for the last 7 years to create sense of urgency among the decision- makers to realize that their only one decision of implementing the mandatory SRO of PSQCA could save huge loss of wheat flour amounting to over 80 billion to the national exchequer annually, but as its generally believed that the bureaucracy is a machinery not the human being made of meat and blood, they have proved their this callous behavior in this case.
Even after 7 years the bureaucracy is yet to realize the waste of wheat flour and level of hunger among the poor of Pakistan. Unfortunately, wheat flour lose is going unabated when the poor people of this country are starving and a vast majority of the people are finding difficult to have food even one time a day.
Its sad state of affairs that instead of saving 0.786 tons of wheat which is lost because of dusting of flour (atta) from the porous, non-food grade , polypropylene bags used for wheat flour packing , by implementing the mandatory gazetted SRO 45 (KE) 2017 (PS 3128 ) dated May 19, 2017 for food grade PSCQA approved atta bags.
In the given scenario when the world is facing grain crisis and Pakistan is already in acute financial crisis and its food security is at risk, its high time to implement PSCQA SRO to stop the use of non-food grade packing for wheat flour and save tens of billions of the country.
Prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif , should look into the case and order investigations into the case to establish who was behind non-implementation of PSCQA SRO 46 (KE) 2017 and fix-up those who were involved in this criminal act.