Mills to get flour supply from next month: API

The government will start releasing wheat for local flour mills from next month (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 grains were procured from the current crop season to maintain national food reserves”, said a senior official in the Agriculture Policy Institute (API). Talking to APP, he said that last year, about 6.5 million tons of wheat was released from the government’s reserves to fulfil the domestic requirements of the flour and other by-products. It is also expected that a reasonable carry forward stock of 1 million tons would be available for meeting the future demand of food, he added. He further said that 24.303 million tons of wheat output was achieved during current crop season as compared to 23.473 million tons 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 quit 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 and price-hike in the local wheat market, he said 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 ban the export of wheat but its by-products 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.