Provinces, PASSCO to buy 8.9m tons of wheat

Review committee agrees on the procurement plan for 2013 crop.

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to meet the wheat procurement target for 2013, provinces and the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) have agreed to purchase 8.9 million tons from the farmers.

Of the total quantity, Punjab and Sindh will procure 4.5 million tons and 1.3 million tons respectively while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan will buy 500,000 tons and 100,000 tons respectively. Passco has agreed to procure 2.5 million tons.

An agreement to this effect came at a meeting of the wheat review committee that met here on Thursday, with Additional Secretary of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Abdul Basit in the chair.

Passco Managing Director Tauqeer Ahmed, representatives of provincial food departments and senior officials of the food security and research ministry were present during the deliberations.

“The committee has been tasked to review overall wheat supply and its stocks with the government. The ministry, in consultation with the stakeholders concerned, will continue to monitor the stocks and supply regularly,” said Abdul Basit in the meeting.



At present, wheat stocks are in surplus, standing at 4.8 million tons.

The meeting participants discussed the government’s recent move to release one million tons of wheat from Passco stocks in the domestic market at reduced prices of Rs1,050 to Rs1,100 per 40 kg in an effort to arrest rising prices of the commodity.

The secretary was told that this had helped improve wheat supply and stabilised wheat and flour prices throughout the country.

Tauqeer Ahmed pointed out that the increase in wheat support price by the federal government from Rs1,050 to Rs1,200 per 40 kg for the crop of 2012-13 had an encouraging effect on sowing. According to initial estimates, the crop has been planted over a wide area of 8.6 million hectares.

Issues like demand and supply, net effect of the high support price on consumers and impact of export on the domestic market were also discussed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2013.

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