ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has exported 500,000 tonnes of wheat, while exporters have made agreements with provincial food departments to lift a total of 1.4 million tonnes of wheat in the next few weeks, an official source told Pakistan Today on Sunday.
In December, the government had allowed the export of 1 million tonnes of wheat out of the available surplus of 2 million tonnes, the source said. The government would not impose any limits on wheat export till the exportable surplus exhausted, he added.
The source said the exporters have found new markets in Bangladesh and Myanmar, where the bulk of Pakistani wheat is being exported other than Afghanistan. Iran is also a major wheat importer and Pakistani exporters are trying to make inroads in the Iranian market, despite some barriers in holding formal trade, he added.
The country still has 5.7 million tonnes of wheat stocks and wheat harvesting will start from March 1, in Sindh province, said the source. He also told that the satellite imagery presented recently by the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Commission (SUPARCO) to the government predicts a bumper wheat crop of over 23 million tonnes.
The source informed that a bumper wheat crop this year would provide another exportable surplus of 2 million tonnes and if the international prices remained high, the government might even allow continuation of wheat exports. However, this would be done only once the official wheat procurement of 6.5 million tonnes paced up, said the source.
He said earlier the State Bank of Pakistan had refused to provide funding for the wheat procurement this year until last year’s funds were returned. He added that the provincial food departments were therefore counting on the wheat exports to pay the debt.
According to the source, the exporters had signed deals to lift 1.1 million tonnes of wheat for export with the Punjab Food Department and 0.3 million tonnes with the Sindh Food Department.
