The federal government has turned down the Sindh government''s demand to ban wheat export, saying that export will continue as huge wheat stocks for local consumption is available in the country.
Last Friday, Sindh government demanded of the federal government to send an official letter for immediate ban on wheat export aimed to control the rising prices of the commodity and to achieve the procurement target of 0.7 million tonnes.
The Sindh government feared that continuous wheat export will jack up the prices of wheat flour further, as has already been raised by Re1 per kg to Rs 18 per kg in the retail market, demanding of the federal government to suspend wheat export forthwith.
However, the federal government in response to the Sindh government''s demand clarified that there is no threat of wheat shortage after bumper wheat crop in the country, therefore the government cloud not ban wheat export, a high official of ministry of food agriculture and livestock (Minfal) told Business Recorder.
The official reiterated that government''s official statistics are reality-based and free of exaggeration. The estimation of bumper wheat crop of 23 million tonnes is a reality-based figure, which has been compiled with consensus of farmers, which is over 2 million higher than our local consumption of 20-21 million tonnes, he added.
Elaborating the reason behind the soaring wheat prices in Sindh, he linked it to the May 12 mayhem left the wheat supply from interior Sindh paralysed pushing the price upward aimed to create turmoil and panic in the market.
He said that the Sindh government has already procured around 600,000 tonnes wheat from farmers, while the remaining 100,000 will be procured within the next few days. He hoped that resumption of wheat supply would positively bring down the wheat grain price in the local market.
The overall government''s procurement target has already been achieved around 90 percent and now only 500,000 tonnes of wheat gains, he added. He said that the government has allowed wheat export with a view to earn the foreign exchange by exporting grains of the previous crop of 2005-06, which is also beneficial for the local farmer besides exporters.
Export of 500,000 tonnes wheat from open market will not create any shortage in the domestic market, he clarified and said if the excess grains were not exported then they will be damaged in the government''s stores. "The government has allowed total 1.3 million wheat export keeping in view the bumper crop, adding that wheat export will continue till end-July" he said.
This is the first time in history of the country that exporters are exporting wheat without any subsidy, while last time in 2004, the government paid million of rupees subsidy to the private exporters and state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan, he mentioned.
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