Govt procures over 830,619 tons of wheat

ISLAMABAD: More than 830,619 metric tons of wheat has been procured so far under the government’s procurement campaign for the current fiscal year of 2019/20 as against the set target of 8.25 million tons to fulfill the domestic and export requirements, an official said on Saturday.

Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Imtiaz Ali Gopang said the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet approved wheat procurement targets of the public sector for tackling the local needs and keeping the strategic reserves. Gopang told APP that about 10.07 percent of the procurement target has been achieved so far whereas the drive is in full swing all across the wheat growing areas of the country.

The Punjab has so far procured about 345,228 metric tons of wheat as against the set target of 4.5 million tons, he said, showing that 7.67 percent of the set target was achieved. Sindh completed 22.38 percent of its procurement target as it procured about 313,323 tons of wheat, he added. The commissioner said the procurement campaign was not yet started in Balochistan, whereas the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa procured about 27,000 tons of wheat. The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Service Corporation (Passco) also procured about 170,831 metric tons of wheat and achieved about 9.48 percent of its set task, he added.

Gopang further said sufficient wheat stocks of about 0.761 million tons are available in the country to tackle the domestic consumption whereas new crop has also started to arrive in the local markets.

According to data of wheat stocks provided by the provincial food ministries and allied departments to the ministry of national food security and research by the end of last week, wheat reserves in the country stood at 0.761 million tons.

Around 0.290 million tons of wheat was available in Punjab and 0.255 million tons in Sindh for fulfilling the local needs, the commissioner said. He said Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa has about 0.065 million tons of wheat, whereas Balochistan has 0.0070 million tons of wheat in their stocks. Passco has 0.174 million tons of grains for local consummation, he added.

Gopang said wheat consumption at the national level was estimated at the 26.91 million tons. Therefore, current wheat stock of the public sector at the level of 0.761 million tons is sufficient to cater the national consumption for 10 days. “The procured quantity will be accounted for after the end of Food Year as on 1st May, 2020.” Besides, 1,162 wheat purchase centers were established across the country to facilitate the growers for selling their products on official fixed rates. The minimum support price was approved at Rs1,400 per 40 kg in order to provide better rates of return.