The government may store the 1.2 million tons imported wheat as strategic reserve to meet any emergency, a senior official of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) told Business Recorder on Monday.
According to him, the government has sufficient stocks of wheat for the year until the marketing of new crop. "It is wrong to say that the government is importing wheat just because of insufficient wheat stocks. We want to keep this imported wheat as a 'strategic reserve," he said.
Flour prices are coming down after the government's announcement about wheat import. The prices of the flour in the domestic market were at Rs 345-355 per 20 kg and the flour millers were expecting a further price hike. But the very day the government announced its decision of import, the prices of flour came down to 285 from 295 per 20 kg.
"Market can be affected by technical and psychological factors. So, in the case of wheat, the psychological factors have played a major role in bringing down the prices of flour in the domestic market", the official added. He said that the hoarders were bringing their wheat stocks in the market after government decision to import wheat.
"The hoarders are now forced to bring wheat in the local market just because of two main factors", the official said, and added that "first of all, they are scared that if the government, after import of wheat, provides it to the flour millers on subsidised rates, then they will lose their profit."
Secondly, he said, most of the hoarders have to buy rice at the end of November. Hence, they would need hard cash at that time, which also compelled them to bring their stocks into the market. He regretted that the provincial governments did not take even a single step against wheat hoarders on the directions of the federal government.