DUSHANBE, October 11, Asia-Plus — A large bulk of wheat flower was recently delivered to Tajikistan from the Russian Federation, Akram Ruziyev, chairman of the state-controlled grain company Ghalla, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, this bulk of flour, totaling 5,000 tons, has been purchased by Tajik firm Sakhi from Russia’s open joint-stock company (OJSK) Pava headquarted in Barnaul.
Ruziyev said a contract on delivery of 5,000 tons of wheat flour was singed between the mentioned companies in mid-September. “This consignment will probably allow forcing down the present flour prices in the country,” the Ghalla head said.
Ruziyev further added that at present more than 30 train cars of wheat flour are being unloaded in Tajikistan daily. “Kazakhstan, which provides the main bulk of Tajikistan’s flour and grain imports, accounts for 90 percent of wheat flour being delivered to Tajikistan,” said the Ghalla head, “Another 10 percent of flour is delivered from Russia.”
At present, the price for a 50-kilogram sack of flour fluctuates from 100 to 120 somonis.
In the meantime, the news agency APK-Inform cited one of top managers of Pava as saying that that they plan to expand cooperation with Central Asia’s states and to have supplied totaling more than 30,000 tons of flour to the region by the end of this year.
We will recall that the price of flour nearly doubled in few days in early September, rising to an average of 110 somonis in urban areas, and 150 somonis in remote mountain areas. It is to be noted that a sudden spike in flour prices, which has triggered a surge in prices for bread and other related bakery products, has affected the entire Central Asian region and has been traced to this year”s poor wheat harvest in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. Tajikistan is especially vulnerable to the price rise, as it relies on imports for over 60 percent of domestic annual requirements.
