PASSCO storage capacity to go up by 0.72m tons

LAHORE: Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) has decided to increase its wheat storage capacity to 1.15 million tons through the construction of storage facilities across Punjab.

This includes steel silos which will be able to stock 0.65 million tons of wheat. The current holding capacity of the Corporation was only about 0.43 million tons.

The facilities will be constructed at an approximate cost of Rs4.56 billion, 80 per cent of which will be provided by the Islamic Development Bank. This was disclosed by the Managing Director of Passco, Major General Sohail Shafqat, at a press conference here on Thursday.

With respect to the wheat procurement campaign of 2010, the MD said that the Corporation had been able to procure 1.13 million tons of wheat from Punjab and Sindh during this season against the target of 1.6 million tons. Shafqat explained that the target could not be met since a total of Rs42 billion was required for procurement whereas Passco was only able to raise Rs29 billion.

Published  in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2010.