Why Pakistan's food crisis is getting worse


Last Saturday, hundreds of people stood in line for hours outside a park in Mirpur Khas, Sindh Province, Pakistan, to purchase subsidised wheat flour that was being sold at 65 rupees per kilogramme rather than the current, inflated figure of between 140 and 160 rupees.


Several people were hurt when the mob charged forward as a few trucks arrived. One guy, Harsingh Kolhi, was killed in the commotion while attempting to bring a five kilogramme sack of grain home for his wife and kids.

After the chaos subsided, a group of onlookers dragged Kolhi's body to the neighbourhood press club and demanded that a murder case be filed against the province's officials in charge of both the flour shortage that resulted from the stampede and the stampede itself, according to Dawn.


The episode is just one illustration of how Pakistan's poorest citizens are already feeling the effects of the nation's worsening food deficit and impending economic disaster.

Government authorities believe that more than 80% of the nation's crops were devastated by the disastrous floods that struck over the summer, and the nation is still recovering from those events as it struggles with economic unrest that has caused food and medicine to remain in ports. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the country's foreign exchange reserves are now just $4.3 billion, barely enough to cover imports for three weeks.



According to Uzair Younus, Director of the Pakistan Initiative at the Atlantic Council, Pakistan is experiencing a dual economic crisis. Food inflation was already high before last year's rains, especially in rural areas, and many people found it difficult to keep up with the increase in costs.

According to Younus, the purchasing power of Pakistan's blue-collar employees has decreased by almost 30% during the past four years. These people are primarily from the lower middle and lower classes and make $2 a day.


The government borrowed significantly in dollars to finance expansion prior to the former prime minister Imran Khan's party taking office in 2018, maintaining an excessive exchange rate. By 2018, the country's foreign exchange reserves had drastically decreased, making it unable to sustain the policy of employing an overvalued exchange rate. Khan's party was compelled to request a $6 billion economic rescue from the IMF in 2019.

Due to the entrance of COVID-19, the IMF programme was put on hold in March 2020. Since then, there have been numerous starts and stops since, according to Younus, the government has not complied with all of the IMF's requirements.


Imports are being delayed at the ports in an effort to stretch dollars, which has an impact on everything from food to medication. Onion prices are currently skyrocketing because containers of onions are detained at the port as a result of the bank's failure to approve payments. "Shortages are bound to occur across the supply chain, notably for imported food and medication, in a country of 230 million on the brink of default."

A two-and-a-half-month delay in the shipping of soybeans, a mainstay in hens' diets, prompted Pakistan's Poultry Association to protest the price increase of poultry by 162 rupees (or 45%) in December. The country's Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination has issued a warning, stating that due to local banks' reluctance to approve letters of credit for the import of medicines' raw materials, the country may soon experience a scarcity of life-saving medications.

The international community, including France, the EU, and China, pledged over $10 billion in loans to assist Pakistan in recovering from flood damages at the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan, a pledging conference hosted by the Pakistani government and the United Nations in Geneva earlier this week.

The one-day conference served as a platform for the presentation of a strategy for a climate-resilient recovery and for soliciting ongoing support from the public and private sectors. It also served as a potential test case for requiring large emitters to cover the losses and damages incurred by smaller emitters who bear the brunt of climate change. Younus points out that as of right now, these are just commitments; it could be months before the money actually shows up, and when it does, it will probably be used to fund particular restoration plans.



Younus stated that it is "anyone's guess" when an agreement will be achieved. Since last September, Pakistan and the IMF have been unable to agree on a financial plan totaling $1.1 billion. General Syed Asim Munir, the head of the army, recently travelled to the UAE and Saudi Arabia in an effort to obtain further loans from those countries.

The Pakistani government was required to meet a number of requirements in order to receive the funding, including boosting taxes and energy prices. Former Prime Minister Khan subsidised energy costs on his way out of office in April of last year following a vote of no confidence, just when the war in Ukraine was driving up energy prices significantly around the world. He was essentially creating a minefield for the new administration.

The administration is reluctant to take any actions that would make them unpopular with voters given that elections are expected in August (or possibly sooner, since Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf party is attempting to dissolve provincial assemblies in a bid for faster polls). Younus asserts that a political party in power would not want to impose price increases and increased inflation in the lead-up to an election. Why would you cause your folks further suffering?

Routines and choices that were once thought of as simple, claims Younus, have become far more challenging. Doctors are reportedly starting to notice adult malnutrition in adults who have stopped eating two meals a day. Teachers in schools have reported that parents have asked them, "I have four children; which one should I keep in school?" I am unable to cover the other three students' tuition costs.


Younus claims that "they cannot make ends meet." Life is too hard to bear.