The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) on Saturday allowed to open a tender to import 250,000 tonnes of white wheat on a three-year deferred payment from the US. As such, the surplus stock of 250,000 tonnes might increase to 300,000 tonnes, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
Additional Secretary of Food and Agriculture Ministry (Minfal) Shahid Hussain Raja confirmed that the US would provide 250,000 tonnes of white wheat on deferred payment for a three-year period and the shipment was expected to start by March 16.
According to the sources, the US would provide an additional 50,000 tonnes of wheat as grant, also expected to reach Pakistan by March 16. The government had committed to import 2.9 million tonnes of wheat through the TCP and a total of 1.7 million tonnes has already reached Pakistan and is been distributed to the provinces.
The price of wheat has again started rising in the world market. The current price of wheat is 250 dollars per tonne as against the earlier price of 210 dollars per tonne. The TCP is expected to import white wheat at the prevailing rate in the US market.
They said that Pakistan was to import 3.5 million tonnes of wheat through public as well as private sectors. Private sector was allowed to import 0.5 million tonnes of wheat and it had imported only half of this quota, ie 250,000 tonnes wheat.
However, the government disallowed import of the remaining half of the allocated quota, as there are sufficient stocks of wheat meet the country's requirements by end of March. Punjab has a stock of 1.2 million tonnes wheat; NWFP: 0.2 million tonnes; and Balochistan: 69,000 tonnes of wheat.
Sindh has a reported stock of 50,000 tonnes of wheat, which would receive a boost of 0.2 million tonnes from Punjab as well as from imports. Sources said that after importing the remaining 1.2 million tonnes through the TCP, the country would have a surplus stock of 250,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes.
They said that the government had decided to follow the Indian model to build up strategic reserves to one million tonnes that would be offloaded on the market whenever such intervention was required.
The government had made timely intervention to encourage the farmers to increase the acreage under wheat with the announcement of support price of Rs 950 per 40 kilogram. Farmers had sown wheat on nine million hectares against the set target of 8.61 million hectares as opposed to 8.55 million hectares during the last season. Due to high wheat acreage, the government is hoping to achieve the set target of 25 million tonnes during the current season.
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