LAHORE: The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) is going to start negotiations for buying 200,000 metric tons of wheat from Russian Federation in next two to three days.
"We have made initial contact through email with the companies which were identified by the diplomatic circles of the Russian Federation during talks with the Ministry of Food Security & Natural Resources (MNFS&R)," said highly-placed sources in the Corporation while talking to Business Recorder here on Wednesday.
After the Economic Coordination Committee's decision to have deal with the government of Russian Federation for import of wheat, the MNFS&R assigned the Corporation to import this wheat on Monday, the sources said, and added that they have contacted the companies identified in the process for further development. They said the government-to-government arrangement would require less procedural requirements thus wheat bought under this method would reach in short time to the country.
The sources said they are waiting for the sale price to be offered by the exporting companies after which some company will be hired for pre-inspection of the commodity offered for sale and then it will be imported.
They said as per direction they intend to import this wheat as soon as possible to meet the domestic requirement.
Talking about the role of Corporation to handle the prevailing wheat crisis, the sources said the Corporation is playing its due role and it had extended 500,000 tons of wheat to Sindh, 50,000 tons to Balochistan and 200,000 tons to Utility Stores Corporation during 2020. While the KPK Government, which has already received 550,000 tons in 2019, has asked for another 500,000 tons this year.
"Out of it MoUs of 200,000 tons of wheat have already been signed while the Corporation has received letter for another 300,000 metric tons also."
They said this year the corporation has received a demand of 375,000 metric tons from AJK while it had given 237,000 metric tons last year while armed forces have also demanded 190,000 metric tons of wheat out of which 150,000 tons have been approved.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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