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Sindh and Punjab: No place for new wheat, says agricultural department

Last year’s surplus stock taking up space in warehouses.

Peer Muhammad March 11, 2015

“The private sector in Sindh imported around 700,000 million tons and similar quantity of stock is in surplus,” said an official of the Sindh agriculture department. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: Due to an inventory overload, the provincial agriculture departments of Sindh and Punjab will face difficulties to procure new wheat stock as a result of lack of space available in their warehouses.

This has occurred due to availability of the last year’s surplus wheat stock, stated by the provincial agriculture departments of the two provinces during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee for Food Security and Research on Tuesday.

At present, the current stock is 5.013 million tons compared to 2.236 million tons during the corresponding period of last year. Out of the total current stock, Punjab has 2.622 million tons, Sindh has 0.866 million tons, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has 0.195 million tons, Balochistan has 0.133 million tons and Passco has 1.217 million tones and there is little space available for procurement of the new wheat crop.

Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikander Hayat Khan Bosan said that this year’s wheat crop is even more bumper than last year’s and it is likely that 27 million tons will be achieved against the set target of 26.5 million.

The official from Sindh agriculture department held the federal government responsible for allowing wheat import for the private sector in Sindh despite bumper crops in the country, which has created problems for local growers.

“The private sector in Sindh imported around 700,000 million tons and similar quantity of stock is in surplus,” said an official of the Sindh agriculture department.

Federal Secretary for National Food Security and Research Seerat Asghar said the ministry is negotiating with different countries for export of surplus wheat in the country and in this regard a contract with Tajikistan has been signed for exporting 5,000 tons at the initial stage.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2015.

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