Set to ship: Govt seeks wider input on surplus wheat stock

Food security ministry invites major exporters to help devise strategy

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Food Security & Research (MNFSR) has invited exporters to the table to develop an effective strategy to export surplus wheat stocked by the provinces and the Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation (Passco).

“We have invited a number of major exporters to the ministry this week to get their feedback on exporting our surplus wheat stock,” said Seerat Asghar, the ministry’s federal secretary, on Sunday.

Asghar said the ministry would hear suggestions and recommendations of the exporters to develop a strategy to export surplus wheat to different countries.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is also scheduled to meet with exporters on Monday to discuss the matter, he added.

He said that following the meeting with exporters and provincial authorities, a meeting would be held with the prime minister to make the final decision.



The premier is expected to meet the exporters in the first week of April after Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, the federal minister, returns from his official trip to Australia.

In the meeting with the exporters, the provincial secretaries of the Food & Agriculture Department will talk about the status of the surplus wheat in their respective provinces.

In a meeting in January, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had approved exporting 1.2 million tonnes of wheat of the total 3 million tonnes of surplus stock in Sindh, Punjab and at PASSCO. However, hardly 100,000 tonnes of wheat have been exported so far.

The ECC had also approved a subsidy of $45 per tonne in Sindh and $55 per tonne in Punjab to bring down the price at par with the international market rate.

The Sindh and Punjab authorities are concerned because they are running out of space to store new stock, which has already started arriving in the market in Sindh and would probably start arriving in Punjab next month.

Bumper crop

The ministry is expecting a bumper crop this year as well, which is expected to reach 27 million tonnes as opposed to the target of 26.5 million tonnes for 2015-16.

Earlier this year, due to import of around 700,000 tonnes by private importers in Sindh at cheap prices, the domestic stock could not be consumed, which made it difficult to procure new crop because there wasn’t enough space in the stores.

The Sindh government blames the centre for allowing wheat imports despite availability of surplus stock.

On the request of Sindh and Punjab, the federal government had imposed a 25 per cent regulatory duty on further import.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2015.