Price hike to hit wheat exports: government urged to help reduce farmers' input cost

The current increase in the support price of wheat would further increase the export cost of Pakistan's wheat which currently stands at over $305 per metric ton fob Karachi. Wheat Traders Association of Pakistan (WTAP) has expressed concern over the export cost which has resulted in reduced wheat exports and fears lurk that Pakistani exporters may lose international markets due to price differential for Pakistani wheat which stands at over $305 per metric ton fob Karachi.
WTAP Secretary Saleem Ahmed said in a statement issued here on Tuesday that India and Black Sea prices--Russian and Ukrainian origin-are around $240 to $260 per metric ton, which has made the export of Pakistani wheat not only difficult but nearly impossible in international market. "Wheat exporters have painstakingly built up export markets in the recent past which now would be lost to our competitors," he said.
The WTAP Secretary has requested the government to seriously look at ways to decrease the input cost to farmers so that wheat could be produced, and exported, at competitive prices as both farmers and exporters had a tremendous potential of producing bumper wheat crops. This, he said, would also "ensure affordable prices to our countrymen"