ISLAMABAD-Sufficient wheat stocks of about 0.980 million tonnes was available to tackle with the domestic consumption whereas new crop has started to arrive in the local markets.
According the data of wheat stocks of Ministry of National Food Security and Research, about 0.466 million tonnes wheat was available with Punjab and 0.255 million tonnes in Sindh Government public stoks, said Food Security Commissionar Dr Imtiaz Ali Gopang.
While talking to APP here on Tuesday he said that Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa had about 0.103 million tonnes of wheat, whereas Balochistan had 0.0061 million tonnes of wheat.
The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Service Corporation had 0.180 million tonnes of grains for local consumption, he added. He said that 1,162 wheat purchase centers had established across country to facilitate the growers for selling their produce on official fixed rates.
He told that wheat procurement target of PASSCO was set at 1.8 million tonnes.
The procurement for Punjab was fixed at 4.5 million tonnes, Sindh 1.4 million tonnes, Balochistan 1 million tonnes and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 0.45 million
The minimum support price (MSP) was approved at Rs 1400 per 40 kg in order to provide better rates of return.
He said that Federal Minister for National Food Security had directed to devise daily or weekly monitoring procedure to
evaluate procurement targets.
The Commissioner further informed that there was sufficient supply of wheat and flour in the country and the government was also going to procure extra in this season as compared to last year.
He further stated that there was no need to panic as satisfactory reports had been given by respected food ministers and representatives of food departments regarding supply of flour and wheat in all provinces.