Punjab raises wheat support price to Rs3,900/40kg

LAHORE: Punjab government on Saturday increased the minimum wheat procurement price to the highest level of Rs3,900/40kg from last year’s price of Rs2,200/40kg bringing it up to the market level.

The increase in the wheat price will definitely increase flour prices in the coming months when the new government wheat release policy based on the new crop procurement would come into force. The government procured wheat at Rs2,200/maund during the last season. Initially, the government started wheat release at Rs1,750/40kg which was latter increased to Rs2,200/40kg due to the huge gap between the market price and government official rates.

At Rs1,750/40kg wheat release price, official flour price was fixed at Rs960/20kg bag of the government released wheat, while now the price has risen to Rs1,295/20kg bag at Rs2,200/40kg wheat release price.

If the government released wheat at the same subsidy pattern, flour price would be between Rs112-114/kg from the current price of Rs64.75/kg with the new wheat price. However, the price of flour produced from open market sourced wheat would be much higher than the official rates. Currently, Chakki atta is being sold at Rs150/kg which touched the high of Rs160/kg when the open market price of wheat had hit Rs5,700/40kg barrier. However, wheat price has declined to Rs4,200-4,400/40kg which brought the price of flour down too.

Since the government has fixed wheat price at almost the same level as the open market, it is expected there would not be any spike in the price of chakki atta in the next season, especially if administrative checks remain in place.

Wheat crop cultivation area remained almost unchanged this year at 16.2 million acres from last year’s 16 million acres. However, it is lower than the targeted 16.5 million acres this year. Government expects crop productivity to be at around 20 million metric tonnes, the same level as last year, although it would be a million less than the target of 21 million metric tonnes. DG Agriculture Extension, Dr Anjum Ali while talking to The News said that wheat crop was one of the major crops impacted by climate change. Temperate changes were impacting the crop’s productivity, he added.

Temperatures in wheat sowing areas have already started increasing, while almost 25 plus days are still left before the wheat harvesting kicks in. So far, there are no expectations of any changes in the forecasted weather for the wheat sowing areas, but any unprecedented weather change could affect the wheat crop, he added. Better market prices have made farmers shift to oilseed, corn and potato crops in Punjab instead of the traditional wheat crop, Ali said, pointing it out as the major reason why the cultivation area under wheat did not expand this year, and remained almost the same compared to the last year.