Punjab wheat procurement drive loses momentum

LAHORE: Punjab wheat procurement drive has lost momentum on stocks pileup; although it is yet to buy more than 0.5 million tons to attain the procurement target set for this year.
“The (food) department has carryover stocks of around two million tons, which are more than sufficient to meet the requirement of the province,” an official said on Wednesday.
He said there has been upward trend in wheat price since the onset of the procurement campaign.
“We succeeded in stabilising purchase price by timely intervening in the market through aggressive procurement,” he added. “As wheat price remained attractive for growers the department decided to slash buying.”
Pakistan’s largest buyer Punjab set the wheat procurement target of four million tons for this buying season, which began on April 30th.
The local demand stands at around 3.5 tons a year.
The official data showed that provincial food department procured 3.232 million tons of wheat in the province till June 2nd, which is just 82 percent of the target.
The daily procurement came down to only 610 tons on the same day. The procurement drive will end in the next couple of days.
Farmers criticised the sluggish wheat purchasing by the provincial government.
Ibrahim Mughal, chairman of Agri Forum Pakistan said the staff of the food department not only failed to achieve the procurement target but also created problems in buying process.
Mughal alleged that the department’s officials abruptly started refusing to provide gunny bags to wheat growers.
The provincial government has so far distributed gunny bags for buying 3.239 million tons among the farmers.
Sources said the government procurement drive aggressively continued till the mid of May.
The distribution of gunny bags among farmers was reduced to merely 24,000 tons on May 16th from the peak of 185,800 tons on May 12th.
The government official added that the department managed to distribute 70 percent of target gunny bags to farmers during first two weeks of the procurement drive.
Haji Muhammad Ramzan, spokesman of Kissan Board Pakistan termed the attitude of government staff pathetic during the wheat procurement drive.
Many farmers complained that they had to face problems of unfair cuts on their produce during buying process, Ramzan said.
Hamid Malhi, president of Wheat Growers Association said government must have continued wheat procurement drive till the achievement of the announced target to give relief to farmers facing losses in nearly every crop.
Malhi admitted that the price of wheat in the market was high compared to the previous years. But, it still hovers around Rs1200/40 kg, he said.
The data showed that wheat buying was below the target in the Sargodha division, comprising of Bhakkar, Khushab, Mianwali and Sargodha districts.
Only 69 percent of the purchase target in the division could be achieved against the provincial average of about 80 percent.
The second lowest-buying was in Gujranwala division, covering Gujranwala, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Narowal and Sialkot districts. The department could only buy 73 percent of the respective target for the division against an average of 80 percent.
The food department attained 87 percent of the procurement target of Rawalpindi division, having Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum and Rawalpindi districts.
The food department achieved 83 percent of the respective target of wheat procurement in Lahore division, consisting of districts of Kasur, Lahore-I, Lahore-II, Nankana Sahib and Sheikhupura.