DUSHANBE, July 31, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Wheat flour prices have risen 20 percent in recent days, Nazar Odinayev, the deputy head of the Antimonopoly Agency under the Government of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus Friday afternoon.

According to him, the price for a 50-kilogram sack of wheat flour rose from 80.00 to 100.00 somoni.  “The price hike has resulted from an 18 percent rise in the international wheat prices following drought in some grain exporting counters,” Odinayev said.

Kazakhstan provides the bulk of Tajikistan’s wheat and flour imports.  Odinayev says Kazakhstan accounts for 96 percent of the overall volume of Tajikistan’s grain imports and the remaining 4 percent are delivered from Russia and Belarus.

As of July 1, 2010, Tajikistan imported flour at the rate of US$220 per one ton, which was US$39 fewer than as of the same date of 2009.  “Current price of one ton of flour is higher,” the antimonopoly official said, noting that the exact figure will be known in early August.

This year, Tajikistan’s annual wheat requirements are 1.43 million tons, while the country has produced only 353,000 tons of wheat by July 1, Odinayev added.