Flour crisis in Makkah Region is all over, Saleh Bin Ali Al-Turki, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Jeddah's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has said. Concerned authorities have succeeded in building a stock that will meet the requirements of the region until the end of the year, he said. Strenuous efforts exerted by Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Region, have effectively helped in narrowing the huge gap between demand and supply of flour, Al-Watan quoted Al-Turki as saying. Al-Turki, according to the paper, said these efforts have largely helped the authorities in securing a huge flour stock and that there will be no shortage of this commodity during Ramadan and Haj seasons when the demand for flour reaches its peak. Al-Turki said Jeddah's Chamber along with Taif's and Makkah's chambers and branches of the Ministry of Commerce as well as the General Organization of Grain Silos and Flour Mill had participated in the campaign organized by the Makkah Governorate aiming to find a solution to the drastic flour shortage in various parts of the Kingdom. He said the weekly quantity allocated for Makkah has been increased from 230,000 to 400,000 flour bags. The Ministry of Commerce has managed to contain the problem by pouring into the grain siols three million bags of flour to meet the needs of the Umrah and Haj seasons this year, he said. Al-Turki said the concerned officials dealt with the crisis according to the comprehensive report made by Jeddah's Chamber in which it had indicted all the dimensions of the problem and suggested practical solutions. He said the suggested measures included a contingency and long-term plan. As a short-term measure, it was stressed that grain silos and flour mills should increase their production capacities. Establishing more silos and flour mills in different parts of the Kingdom is also in the cards, he said. Apart from this, Al-Turki said Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has ordered the formation of five new committees to supervise the distribution of flour and monitor any violations. He said the flour crisis aggravated due to the unavailability of new studies indicating the real requirements of the Kingdom. The committees have now pinpointed the actual flour needs now, he said. __
