Due to price difference: NA panel foresees movement of wheat from Punjab to Sindh

ISLAMABAD: Due to a higher minimum support price (MSP) of wheat fixed by the Sindh government, wheat from Punjab province will go to Sindh province, said the chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research, Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan.

Sindh fixed MSP at Rs4,000 per 40kg while Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan provinces have fixed wheat MSP at Rs3,000 per 40kg for the upcoming crop season, Ajmal said while presiding over the meeting of the committee. “As a result of higher wheat price in Sindh, wheat from Punjab will go to Sindh province,” he said.

He said that farmers will earn Rs120,000 at the Rs3,000 per 40kg of wheat.

“The average rent of per acre agricultural land is Rs50,000 and after adding input cost what farmers will earn at Rs3,000 per 40kg wheat rate,” he said.

MNA Sardar Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari said that we were self-sufficient in wheat. Where wheat is going? Wheat cannot go to India and Afghanistan, so where is it going, he asked.

The committee expressed its concerns over the smuggling of wheat and fertilisers and asked the government to take appropriate measures to control smuggling in order to ensure the supply of the commodity in the country.

The committee chairman said that because of the smuggling of wheat, prices of flour in the local market increased. The ban on the inter-provincial movement of wheat also increased the gap between demand and supply in wheat-deficit areas, he said.

Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research Zafar Hasan, while briefing the committee, said that the federal government is providing wheat to 11 national entities and provincial departments, adding that requirements at the provincial level have increased after devastating floods in the country.

He said that additional one million tons of imported wheat will be provided to Punjab during the current year. There were sufficient stocks of wheat available for meeting the requirement, he said.

He said that delays in wheat releases from the official stocks to millers by the provincial governments are the main reason of the price increase.

The secretary said that tendering process for the import of 2.60 million metric tons of wheat was completed, adding that the first tender was awarded in May 2022 and the last was awarded in December. Under the government-to-government agreement, wheat is also being imported from Russia, he said.

He said that the price of wheat increased worldwide due to Russia-Ukraine war and the same situation also affected the local market.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023