Pakistan to export 2m tonnes of wheat this year

Pakistan will export another two million tons of wheat this year out of the country’s total production of 24.2 million tons for the current year.

After lifting the ban on wheat export in December last year Pakistan has already exported 1.3 million tons of wheat during the current year. The ban was imposed after the devastating floods in August last year created a food shortage in the country. An official source at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture said that the ongoing procurement drive of the public sector agencies have taken the wheat stocks to 9.1 million tons that would allow export of another 2 million tons of wheat this year. The government had earlier earmarked Rs165 billion for the procurement of 6.57 million tons of wheat.

The official procurement drive will end on 30 June, he said adding that by that time the remaining 0.7 million tons of wheat would also be procured by the government agencies. He said that the wheat prices in the international market were on the rise and exporters would easily get orders for exports. In Pakistan wheat procurement is mainly done by the government agencies which later on release wheat to domestic flour mills and exporters.

Before the harvesting of the wheat crop the government had announced Rs950 per 40 kilograms as the official wheat support price. While the releases from September are made after including incidental and storage charges at a price of Rs1000 per 40 kg. Up to 10June, Punjab procured 3.1 million tons of wheat against a target of 3.5 million tons, Sindh 1.38 million tons against the target of 1.3 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has procured 0.17 million tons against the target of 0.4 million tons and Balochistan has procured 0.09 million tons against the target of 0.07 million tons.

Domestic wheat requirements are estimated at 22 million tons and a crop of 24.2 million tons this year would provide an exportable surplus of 2 million tons. The government agencies also have stocks of 3 million tons of wheat from last years crop.