Consumption and Trade of Wheat and Flour in Pakistan – The Role of Public and Private Sectors

This article, the second of two articles In this Review on the operation of the wheat market in Pakistan,- describes the various sources from which consumers in the Punjab, Sind and the NWFP obtain wheat and flour. There appear to be considerable differences in the patterns of wheat provisioning, if consumers are distinguished by province, rural and urban areas and household income. Further, an evaluation is made of the performance of private traders in wheat- and flour-markets. These findings are then used to examine whether the position of self-sufficiency in wheat, which the country has recently achieved, provides arguments for revising the wheat-market policies adopted during a period when the situation was much less favourable.