Reporting snapshot · 11 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). Wheat and flour prices have risen across Pakistan, but the figures below are the mill, wholesale and retail rates published on their own dates and are not one national price series. Punjab's subsidy was decided on Saturday and reported on 10–11 October, while Sindh's release price and ex-mill reduction date from 8–10 October. Any change to the release schedules or to federal wheat policy will update this article.
What happened
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Saturday approved a Rs10 billion subsidy for flour and ordered an increase in the quota of subsidised government wheat supplied to flour mills, after convening an emergency video-link meeting to address a sharp rise in prices, The Express Tribune reported on 11 October 2026. The meeting fixed the release price of subsidised government wheat at Rs3,800 per maund and directed officials to keep affordable flour and low-cost roti available, Pakistan Today reported.
The Punjab decision follows more than a week of steep increases in milled flour and wheat prices, and a parallel response by Sindh, where the provincial government agreed with millers to cut the ex-mill price of flour and approved the release of subsidised wheat from 15 October.
How high have prices gone
The increases have been large and fast. Flour millers in Karachi raised prices by Rs6 per kilogram on Thursday, taking the total increase over the preceding few days to about Rs20 per kilogram, Dawn reported on 9 October. After that increase, the millers’ rates for flour No. 2.5 stood at Rs161 per kilogram, maida at Rs173 and fine flour at Rs176.
At the retail level the picture has been higher and more uneven. The Wholesale Grocers Association in Karachi put the wholesale price of No. 2.5 flour at Rs156 per kilogram and its retail price at Rs170, with fine flour at Rs170 wholesale and Rs190 retail, and chakki flour at Rs190–200 wholesale and Rs215–220 retail, The Express Tribune reported on 11 October. The association’s Abdul Rauf Ibrahim said clean wheat was being supplied to small mills at Rs160 per kilogram and that ordinary wheat had climbed to Rs145–150 per kilogram.
Wheat at the wholesale level has moved similarly. Market wheat in Karachi was selling at about Rs13,200 per 100-kilogramme bag in the first week of October, up from about Rs12,400 on 1 October, while retail flour ranged between Rs165 and Rs170 per kilogram, Dawn reported on 8 October. Because the outlets measure mill, wholesale and retail prices separately on different days, these figures are dated snapshots rather than a single national index.
The provincial response
Punjab’s package combines a consumer subsidy with a larger release of cheap wheat to millers. Officials said the province would supply subsidised government wheat at Rs3,800 per maund and fund the Rs10 billion subsidy to keep flour affordable, The Express Tribune reported. The chief minister said the burden of inflation on Punjab’s households was “extremely painful” and that the provision of affordable flour and low-cost roti would continue, Pakistan Today reported.
Sindh has taken a different route. Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah approved the release of government wheat at Rs12,500 per 100-kilogramme bag from 15 October, below the market price, to stabilise flour prices, Dawn reported on 8 October. Sindh held 346,414 tonnes of wheat in stock, and with 190,000 tonnes from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation and 300,000 tonnes of imported wheat, the total available for release would rise to 836,414 tonnes.
That was followed by a high-level meeting on Friday chaired by Sindh Food Minister Makhdoom Mehboob Uz Zaman, at which the government and the Flour Mills Association agreed to reduce the ex-mill price of flour by Rs6 per kilogram, from Rs161 to Rs155, Dawn reported on 10 October. The minister said Sindh had provided a Rs76.5 billion subsidy to wheat growers and that mills held about 1.5 million 100-kilogramme bags of wheat, which he described as roughly one month’s consumption.
Why it matters
Wheat flour is the single most important staple in Pakistani diets, so its price feeds directly into household budgets and into headline inflation. Consumer inflation eased to 10.3 per cent year-on-year in September but stayed in double digits on food and energy costs, which weigh most heavily on low-income households.
The market has been unsettled since mid-year, when the Economic Coordination Committee approved the urgent import of one million tonnes of wheat as prices climbed past Rs150 per kilogram. Farmers had earlier staged countrywide protests over the wheat support price.
The politics of the spike are sharpening too. The Hyderabad SITE Association of Trade and Industry chairman, Zubair Ahmed Ghanghra, criticised an increase of Rs2,500 in the price of a wheat bag, attributed the rise partly to the government’s decision to stop wheat procurement, and said the authorities should press food affordability during talks with the International Monetary Fund, The Express Tribune reported on 11 October. The Karachi wholesalers’ association called for a large-scale crackdown on wheat hoarders and warned that prices could rise further.
What is still uncertain
- Punjab has not published how the enlarged subsidised wheat quota will be allocated among mills, or what retail price consumers should expect; the benefit depends on whether the reduction is passed through, The Express Tribune reported.
- Sindh’s release price of Rs12,500 per 100 kilogrammes is below the prevailing market price, but millers’ representatives had said their increases were driven by higher market wheat rates, leaving open whether the agreed cut holds, Dawn reported.
- Reported price levels differ by province, outlet and date, and no single official national series was published at the time of writing; KhabarWire has kept each figure attached to the outlet and date that reported it.
- Federal wheat procurement and the coming season’s support price remain unresolved, shaping whether price pressure persists after the provincial releases.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published reporting, not eyewitness coverage. Sources were reviewed on 11 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The Punjab subsidy decision is taken from the Punjab Chief Minister's Office statement as carried by The Express Tribune and Pakistan Today. Sindh's wheat release price and ex-mill reduction, and the market price ranges, are taken from Dawn's business reporting; the Karachi wholesale and retail rates and the industry reaction are taken from The Express Tribune. Because the published figures measure different points in the supply chain, KhabarWire attributes each to the outlet and date that reported it rather than presenting a single reconciled series.
- The Express Tribune — Flour price hike riles CMPublished 11 October 2026 · Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz's disapproval of the flour price increase, the emergency video-link meeting, the Rs10 billion subsidy and the higher subsidised wheat quota at Rs3,800 per maund.
- Pakistan Today — CM Maryam approves Rs10b flour subsidy, boosts wheat quota to rein in pricesPublished 10 October 2026 · The Punjab Chief Minister's Office statement, the Rs10 billion subsidy approval and the chief minister's quoted remarks on inflation and affordable flour.
- Dawn — Govt, millers agree to reduce flour price by Rs6 per kiloPublished 10 October 2026 · Sindh Food Minister Makhdoom Mehboob Uz Zaman's meeting with millers, the cut in the ex-mill flour price from Rs161 to Rs155 per kilogram, the Rs76.5 billion wheat-grower subsidy and the reported mill stocks.
- Dawn — Flour millers deliver another price shockPublished 9 October 2026 · The Rs6 per kilogram increase by millers, the roughly Rs20 per kilogram increase over the preceding days, and the mill rates for flour No. 2.5, maida and fine flour.
- Dawn — Govt wheat to hit market next week at Rs12,500 per 100kgPublished 8 October 2026 · Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah's approval of the Rs12,500 per 100-kilogramme release price from 15 October, the province's wheat stocks, and the Karachi and retail price comparisons.
- The Express Tribune — Wholesalers warn rise in flour pricesPublished 11 October 2026 · Karachi wholesale and retail flour and wheat prices, the call for a crackdown on hoarders, and the warning of further increases.
- The Express Tribune — Trade, industry denounce wheat price spikePublished 11 October 2026 · Hyderabad SITE Association chairman Zubair Ahmed Ghanghra's criticism of the Rs2,500 rise in the price of a wheat bag, his remarks on wheat procurement and the IMF, and his call to investigate hoarding.
