Punjab food department has started pre-delivery inspection of gunny bags being purchased by it for the forthcoming wheat procurement season. Sources in the food department told Business Recorder here on Monday that the department would hopefully receive these gunny bags sufficient to pack one million tonnes of wheat by March 31, 2009. While the department already had gunny bags sufficient for 2.5 million tonnes of wheat.
They said that all the preparations by the department had been finalised to start procurement of three million tonnes of wheat, the target assigned to it by the government. The sources hoped that when the procurement starts, the department would have 85 per cent gunny bag of the target with it.
Regarding the loan arrangements, the sources stated that the department had a meeting with the Banks representatives during last week and written to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) that the credit limit of Rs 111 billion assigned to it by the Finance Division should be distributed among six banks, including Habib Bank Limited, United Bank Limited (UBL), MCB Bank, National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab and Askari Bank.
They said that another meeting would be held by March 27-28 with the representatives of these banks by the Punjab Food Department high ups to finalise the interest rate. They said that the department is yet to receive the interest bid from these banks.
Regarding demand of early start of procurement in certain districts of Punjab, the sources said that the department had already got permission from the Punjab governor to start one week early procurement in Rajanpur and Rahimyar Khan districts. However, they said that there was some problems in early procurement as the wheat had more moisture then specification and storage of such wheat not only damage it but also the wheat stored with it.
Talking about the current wheat releases to the flourmills, the sources stated that the department had increased the wheat release to flourmills to 17,500 tonnes per day and traditionally this quantity was released to the flourmills in the months of February and March to meet the requirement of flour.