Govt to buy wheat from growers at Rs1,300 per maund

Karachi
The Sindh government has decided to buy the fresh wheat crop from growers at the highest market rate of Rs1,300 per maund while disposing of the leftover surplus stock before this year’s harvest.
This was decided at a meeting of the ministerial sub-committee for food held under the supervision of Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah on Tuesday.
It was decided that wheat procurement centres will be opened in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions from March 15 to supply gunny bags to growers while a new window with a six-month bank guarantee will sell surplus wheat to traders on subsidised rate of Rs3,250 per maund.
Keeping in view of recession in the international market, members of the meeting recommended to the federal government to keep its export offer of $45 per ton intact, till prices went up globally.
Members of the meeting included finance minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, excise and taxation minister Giyan Chand Essrani, food secretary Saeed Awan, finance secretary Sohail Rajput and director food Muhammad Bachal Rahpoto.
Another decision taken at the meeting was to shift the leftover wheat stock from warehouses in Sukkur, Ghotki and Khairpur to Karachi and make sure that two million tons were supplied to local markets and exporters in the port city.
Besides, warehouses in Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushero Feroze and Jamshoro would also be vacated by selling wheat to local traders before harvesting the fresh crop.
The district plans for procuring fresh crop of wheat were also reviewed at the meeting and it was decided that centres set up last year would continue to work. However, new procurement committees would be set up and would work under the deputy commissioners.
The chief minister while speaking at the meeting directed the officers to give priority to small traders in the procurement process and strictly warned officials not to hand out gunny bags themselves but follow instructions of the district procurement committees.
He said an unexpected import of 700,000 tons of wheat had imbalanced the market and created problems for the government but the officials were dealing with the issue.
He ordered and immediate crackdown on hoarders and inter-provincial wheat smugglers, besides giving directions to sell off the leftover wheat and prepare a strategy for exporting the fresh crop after its harvest in May and June. The food secretary Saeed Awan while briefing the meeting said out of 890,000 tons of surplus wheat with the government, 46,000 tons had been sold.
Moreover, he said, a deal to dispose of 400,000 tons of wheat on a six-month bank credit was about to be finalised. He said Karachi needed between 1.5 and 2 million tons of wheat in a month and by the end of April and beginning of May, around four million tons more will be disposed of.