As the harvesting of the bumper wheat crop has almost been completed in Punjab, the provincial government has procured over three million tons wheat of 2015-16 crop against the target of 4.5 million tons so far.
Official sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that the federal government had set the wheat procurement target for the 2016 season at 6.95 million tons against the target of 6.6 million tons in the previous year to meet domestic requirements.
The Punjab government would buy 4.5 million tons, Sindh one million tons, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 0.35 million tons, Balochistan 0.10 million tons and Pakistan Agriculture Services and Supplies Corporation (Passco) one million tons.
They said that the government has a leftover of 5.426 million tons of wheat and it was also likely to achieve this year's production target of 26 million tons.
Meanwhile, the Flour Mills Association is also purchasing 1.2 million tons of wheat from all over the province of which it has already procured 0.7 million tons. Flour mills are fully active to procure remaining 0.5 million tons of wheat.
Sources said that the government was encouraging private sector for wheat procurement so that the cultivators could benefit from the environment of competitions.