‘Pakistan wheat secure till next harvest’

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFSR) on Friday said Pakistan was wheat secure till the next harvest and claims of excessive shortage were fallacious.

In a statement, the ministry said provincial crop reporting services informed it that there was a shortage of 1.6 million tons of wheat.

To bridge the shortfall, it was decided to import wheat with a three-pronged strategy - imports through public and private sectors as well as under a government-to-government (G2G) arrangement.

"The public sector is importing wheat through G2G in two ways. Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) will bring 180,000 tons of G2G wheat in November," the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Thursday allowed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to import 340,000 tons of wheat in the coming month.

According to the ministry, the imported wheat will be distributed amongst Passco, Punjab and KhyberPakhtunkhwa (K-P) in proportion to what they have ordered/ demanded.

On the other hand, the public sector is importing wheat through TCP. The corporation has disclosed a schedule of 29 vessels that will arrive in January 2021, bringing outsized amount of wheat in the country.