The government will start releasing wheat for local flour mills from September for smooth supply of flour and other by-products as abundant commodity stocks are available in the official reserves.
“We have about 1.618 million of carry forward wheat stock besides 5.941 million tons of gains were procured from the current crop season to maintain national food reserves,” said a senior official in Agriculture Policy Institute (API).
On Thursday, he said that last year about 6.5 million tonnes of wheat was released from the government’s reserves to fulfill the domestic requirements of the flour and other byproducts.
It is also expected that a reasonable carry forward stock of 1 million tonnes would be available for meeting the future demand of food, he added.
He said further 24.303 million tonnes of wheat output was achieved during current crop season as compared to 23.473 million tonnes produced during last year, showing 3.5 percent growth as compared to the same period of last year.
Besides, per capita wheat consumption was recorded at 120 kg per annum, which he said was quite comfortable.
The official further informed that about 9 million tons of wheat and its by products were exported last year. The exported products included 1.24 million tons wheat, over 8.5 million tons flour and 1 million tons of other by products.
About the price commodity price hike in the local wheat market, he said that some unseen forces were trying to hoard the wheat to create artificial dearth of the commodity.
To discourage these elements, the government has allowed the private sector to import wheat and banned the export of wheat but its byproducts were allowed to export, he added. In this regard, private sector had booked orders for about 100,000 tons in Asian wheat market as it was available comparatively at low rates in that market, he added.
If necessary steps towards this stock is not taken then it will be gone a waste and government have to sell it at lower price or the rate.
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