The ineffective policies made the country to spend 315 million dollars on wheat import during the first quarter of the current fiscal year to cope with the flour crisis, market sources said.
Wheat imports are continuously on the rise for the last one year and surged by 5883 percent during the first three months of the current fiscal year (FY09) to meet the shortage of wheat resulting from increased smuggling into Afghanistan and hoarding within the country, they said.
"The rising smuggling and hoarding trend in the country are the main reasons behind huge imports of the commodity at high prices despite the fact that Pakistan is an agricultural country," they added. Official statistics show that government has spent some $315.475 million on wheat imports in the first quarter of 2008-09 against $5.272 million in corresponding period of 2007-08 depicting an increase of $310.203 million.
In terms of volume, wheat imports during July-August amounted to 766,965 tons against 11,000 tons in the corresponding period of last year, showing a rise of 6872 percent.
On the month on month basis, wheat imports also reflect increase of 276 percent during September 2008, as compared to August 2008. During September 2008 $225.291 million were spent on wheat import against $59.939 million in August 2008.
Market sources said that the previous government had allowed wheat export in December 2006 and the country exported some 0.5 million tons at 220-250 dollars per ton during February to May 2007, while now wheat is being imported at the high price of 375-500 dollars per ton. They said that smuggling and hoarding are going on and the government has not taken any action against the smugglers and hoarders.
Up till now, TCP has finalised deals for the import of over 1.75 million tons red wheat, while 0.75 million tons white wheat deals would be finalised soon following federal government decision to import 2.5 million tons wheat.
"Imports at high rates also compelled the government to pay billions of rupees subsidy to stabilise the prices of wheat and wheat flour in domestic market, sources said. Although the federal government is importing enormous quantities of wheat to reduce the supply and demand gap, the prices of wheat and its flour are still at peak level, they added. They said that wheat is being sold at Rs 2800 per 100 kg bag, and wheat flour at Rs 32-35 per kg in the local market.
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