Despite having a surplus wheat stock of two million metric tonnes and lack of storage capacity, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) is facing hardship in convincing the Finance Ministry for its export, it is learnt.
Federal Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan after a FCA meeting on Tuesday had announced the wheat export after the Eid, but the Finance Ministry had shown red signal for the export of the wheat, as it would trigger inflation.
"We would assess the whole situation of domestic requirement and the size of coming crop, then export of wheat would be allowed", said Food Secretary Ismail Qureshi when contacted by Business Recorder on Saturday.
The ministry has also to protect the domestic flour consumers, as chunk of population for its main intake is flour (Rooti), he said, adding that it will not be sane to export at the cost of domestic consumers.
"We should remain in the grain market by allowing export, as it would not only encourage, but also ensure price of the produce to the growers", said another official who asked not to be quoted.
It is impossible for the flour millers to sell the purchased wheat at Rs 11 per kg to Rs 13 per kg, the same official said, adding that the only solution for this is to create a competitive environment by lifting ban on wheat export.
Pakistan''s wheat is best among the commodities of the rest of the world and Middle East is another potential market for Pakistani grain, as it could be used in ''Harisa'' one of the dishes in the region and Pakistani flour is suitable for this, the official added.
It is interesting to mention that despite having the potential of producing 30 million tonnes of wheat from the current sown area, the country never touched a 22 million tonnes wheat production figure. "We are producing below our capacity only because the farmers did not get support price of the produce", said a progressive woman farmer, Rabia Sultan.
There would be no need of support price or even Passco or provincial food departments to intervene in wheat procurement, if there is fair and competitive system in place, she opined. The 70 million population, which lives in villages and agriculture is main livelihood, is at the receiving end but at the expense of 30 million urban population to feed them, Rabia added.
Questioning the economic and agri managers, she also said that why the farmers should feed subsidised flour to the urban population and it is the duty of the state to provide affordable commodity to the population but not the farmers to sell their produce at cheaper rates.
Pakistan has total cereal production of 32 million tonnes and consumption of 27 million tonnes with five million tonnes in surplus. The cereals include barley, wheat, rice and maize.
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