Business

Wheat procurement to start in April

PASSCO to buy 1.6m tons, Punjab Food Department to purchase 4m tons.

Anwer Sumra March 07, 2013

The food department as part of its wheat procurement policy, will distribute eight gunny bags per acre to farmers after verification from the revenue department.

LAHORE: The Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) will begin wheat procurement in April and aims to collect 1.6 million tons during the upcoming wheat harvest season from Punjab and Sindh, at a support price of Rs1,200 per 40 kilogrammes, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Passco Field General Manager Colonel (retd) Tanveer Ahmed said, “All arrangements are in final stages to start the procurement process. The corporation has acquired 1.4 million gunny and polythene bags and the process will begin in April.”

On the other hand, the Punjab government had fixed the procurement target of four million tons for the year 2013, and will begin collection on April 15, also at price of Rs1,200 per bag.

Passco’s and Punjab Food Department’s carried forward stock was calculated at one million tons and 0.5 million tons respectively, officials from both the procuring agencies said.

However, warehousing capacity of the Punjab Food Department is three million tons, whereas Passco has the capacity to store 0.431 million tons each in Sindh and Punjab.

Therefore, the excess quantity is being stored under plastic sheets under the open sky to maintain freshness, but still at risk in case of floods or heavy rains, officials said.

In 2012, Passco procured 1.43 million tons, which it released to Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu Kashmir and armed forces, and the Punjab Food Department bought 3.5 million tons.

The food department as part of its wheat procurement policy, will distribute eight gunny bags per acre to farmers after verification from the revenue department. It will also establish 375 procurement centres across Punjab, the official said. Passco will procure in 10 zones including nine in Punjab and one in Sindh.

Annual demand for the staple crop in Punjab was calculated to range between 2.2 to 2.5 million tons, the official said.

To fund procurement missions, the Punjab Food Department and Passco will borrow Rs120 billion and Rs48 billion from commercial banks on the present mark-up rate respectively.

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

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