KARACHI: Wheat supply continues unabated in non-growing areas as Sindh government eases restriction on the staple food’s movement to meet the consumer demand, although inter-district and -provincial movement is constricted amid coronavirus-induced lockdown, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Khalid Masood, chairman of All Pakistan Flour Mills Association Sindh said wheat movement is allowed without restriction to non-growing areas, including Karachi. “There is day-to-day purchase from mills but supply has outstripped the demand,” Masood said. “There would be a decline in number of buyers, as some buyers did panic buying few days back. Right now, there is no crisis of wheat flour.”
However, Mumtaz Ali, a miller from Sukkur, complained that they had made payment in advance to a district food administration in December for purchase, but were still waiting for the delivery. Sindh food department showed stocks of 235,000 tons of wheat but nothing was provided to mills from carryover stocks.
Growers said Sindh government is dragging feet on wheat procurement drive while growers sit on pile of stocks. Farmer Rahim Lakho told The News that wheat truck was not allowed to move from one district to other.
“I told food department to either purchase my wheat or show me notification of the ban. They did neither,” Lakho said. “We are disallowed from selling wheat and no department is buying it from us.”
There have been restrictions for growers. They are neither allowed to sell wheat nor is the food department purchasing from areas where no procurement centre has been opened.
Sindh government officials said they started wheat procurement in the province with orders for opening of 525 procurement centres in 23 districts in the province. One official of Sindh Agriculture Department said opening of procurement centres was ordered in the province, but centres were opened in a few districts. Others were in the process.
Sindh Abadgar Board Senior Vice President Mehmood Nawaz Shah said the government banned inter-district wheat movement in some districts in spite of a fact that deputy commissioners were asked to ease the ban.
Shah agreed that growers in the province were facing wheat movement problems, which resulted in a decline of prices. “Wheat prices are below support price of Rs1,400 per 40-kg in the market. It is being sold between Rs1,300 to Rs1,340 per 40-kg,” he said. “Wheat procurement has not yet commenced in the whole province. But, it started in Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar and Sanghar districts.”
The government has to procure 25 percent of total produce. Forty percent wheat would go in the supply chain, while growers would hold the remaining for seed and food purposes. Nearly 80 percent of wheat harvesting has already been complete in the province.
Sindh is expected to produce 3.8 million tons of wheat this year from an area of 1.11 million acres. The provincial government would purchase 1.4 million tons or 37 percent of the total production.
Last month, food ministry fixed 8.25 million tons of wheat procurement target for the current crop at a revised-up price of Rs1,400 per 40 kilograms. The targets were set at 1.8 million tons for Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation, 4.5 million tons (Punjab), 1.4 million tons (Sindh), 1 million tons (Balochistan) and 0.45 million tons (Kyhbyer Pakhtunkhwa).