ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is all set to harvest a bumper wheat crop of 24.4 million tonnes from the wheat crop sown over 8.8 million hectares acreage, says the second estimate of the crop issued by the provinces to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. According to the report, Punjab would be producing 18.2 million tonnes of wheat from acreage of 6.68 million hectares, Sindh 4.2 million tonnes from 1.14 million hectares, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa 1.1 million tonnes from 0.74 million hectares while Balochistan would harvest 0.72 million tonnes from 0.33 million hectares.
The public sector wheat procurement in Punjab will commence from April 20 while Sindh has already started purchasing wheat from growers at the official rate of Rs 950 per 40 kg. During the last fortnight, it has procured 200,000 tonnes of wheat. The government had set a wheat production target for this year at 25 million tonnes, as compared to last year’s production of 23.3 million tonnes. Officials are anticipating that the crop yield would be close to the government target due to favourable weather, even though the crop was sown late. Domestic food requirements are estimated at 22 million tonnes and the upcoming crop would provide an exportable surplus of 2 million tonnes.
Pakistan has so far exported 1 million tonnes of wheat, while the government has allowed export up to 3 million tonnes of wheat from last years reserves. The government agencies still have stocks of 3.4 million tonnes. The private sector is being provided wheat at a rate of Rs 1,000 per 40 kg, which it was exporting to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Yemen and Vietnam. The price of wheat in the international market is $ 364 per ton or Rs 30,940 per ton while the domestic price is Rs 23,750 per ton.
