AIRLINK 189.40 Decreased By ▼ -7.25 (-3.69%)
BOP 10.08 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.59%)
CNERGY 6.69 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FCCL 33.91 Increased By ▲ 0.89 (2.7%)
FFL 17.17 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (3.12%)
FLYNG 23.74 Increased By ▲ 1.29 (5.75%)
HUBC 125.90 Decreased By ▼ -1.39 (-1.09%)
HUMNL 13.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.13 (-0.94%)
KEL 4.76 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
KOSM 6.54 Increased By ▲ 0.17 (2.67%)
MLCF 43.10 Increased By ▲ 0.88 (2.08%)
OGDC 223.00 Increased By ▲ 9.97 (4.68%)
PACE 7.38 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (5.28%)
PAEL 41.65 Increased By ▲ 0.78 (1.91%)
PIAHCLA 17.30 Increased By ▲ 0.48 (2.85%)
PIBTL 8.40 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (1.33%)
POWER 9.04 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (2.49%)
PPL 193.20 Increased By ▲ 9.63 (5.25%)
PRL 37.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.93 (-2.43%)
PTC 23.92 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.62%)
SEARL 93.99 Decreased By ▼ -1.12 (-1.18%)
SILK 0.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-1%)
SSGC 39.94 Decreased By ▼ -0.37 (-0.92%)
SYM 17.76 Decreased By ▼ -0.45 (-2.47%)
TELE 8.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-1.72%)
TPLP 12.39 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (1.47%)
TRG 62.45 Decreased By ▼ -1.91 (-2.97%)
WAVESAPP 10.25 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-1.82%)
WTL 1.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-1.12%)
YOUW 4.02 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.5%)
BR100 11,769 Increased By 46.3 (0.4%)
BR30 35,896 Increased By 536.5 (1.52%)
KSE100 113,260 Increased By 621.7 (0.55%)
KSE30 35,693 Increased By 235.2 (0.66%)

The food departments of Punjab and Sindh and the Passco had purchased 2.4 million tonnes of wheat till May 10, which was 50 percent of this year's procurement target of 4.8 million tonnes, official sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday. They said that the private sector and the flour mills were also aggressively buying fresh wheat from the open market competing with the public sector, which was paying minimum support price of Rs 10 per kilogramme to the farmers. The sources said that as per the decision of the federal government there is no restriction/ban on the movement of wheat or wheat flour across the country and the two provincial governments of NWFP and Balochistan, which lacks wheat production, could buy as much wheat as they liked from the open market.
In the past, Punjab, which produces six-seven million tonnes additional wheat than its requirement, had been imposing restrictions on the inter-district wheat movement during the harvesting season to achieve its procurement target.
According to the figures made available to Business Recorder, the Punjab Food Department has procured 1.35 million tonnes of wheat, Sindh Food Department 0.5 million tonnes and Passco has procured 0.6 million tonnes as on May 10.
The sources said that the likely bumper wheat crop of over 21.5 million tonnes during 2004-05 and 0.5 million tonnes of last year's carryover would be sufficient to meet domestic needs.
During 2003-04, wheat production stood at 19 million tonnes due to which 1.5 million tonnes of the commodity was imported to avert likely wheat flour crisis in the country as Pakistanis are among the biggest per capita consumer of wheat flour in the world.
Market analysts said that despite bumper wheat crop the prices of wheat flour are not coming down as it was being sold at Rs 13 per kilogramme as against the wheat support price of Rs 10 per kg, thus, allowing the middlemen to make profit of Rs 3 per kg.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005

Comments

Comments are closed.