Sindh attributes wheat crisis to import

SUKKUR: A provincial minister on Monday questioned the reason behind the last year’s import of 0.7 million tons of wheat from Ukraine by the federal government despite that the Sindh government had held the commodity stocks of 1.2 million tons.
Sindh Minister for Food Gayan Chand Israni, talking to reporters, said this created wheat crisis in the province. “There was a stock of 1.2 million tons in the warehouses of Sindh when the federal government imported wheat from Ukraine, which was not justified,” he added.
Israni said due to the import Sindh government had to cut its wheat procurement target from 1.2 million tons to 0.9 million ton. “While there was a bumper wheat crop in Sindh, the crisis erupted because of the reduction in the procurement target,” he added.
The food minister said he took a notice of the complaints of the growers over the unfair distribution of the wheat procurement bags, and suspended some of the officials. The food department has taken action against the officials who were distributing wheat bags to the middlemen instead of growers.