SIALKOT
Huge quantity of wheat yield stocked in official warehouses worth Rs6 billion is yet to be sold in Gujranwala Division while the fresh wheat yield is also expected in a couple of months as the flour mills were willing to purchase wheat from open market.
According to the senior officials, the Food Department had procured wheat worth Rs11 billion during the last season, out of which wheat worth Rs6 billion was still stocked in the go-downs due to the less interest in purchasing of wheat by the flour mills. The flour mills preferably purchased wheat from the open markets, instead of purchasing it from the food department.
Now, the fresh wheat yield was also expected to be arrived in the official go-downs after the start of the wheat procurement about 38 days later as the procurement process was likely to start from April 15, 2015.
The Punjab government had already reduced the support price of wheat to Rs1280 per mound from Rs1330 in a bid to motivate the flour mills’ owners to purchase wheat from the department instead of purchasing wheat from the open market.
The government had already allowed five divisions in Punjab to export wheat for ensuring early availability of place in official go-downs to stock the fresh wheat yield.
The department has yet to sell out 1,297,700 bags of wheat worth Rs4.5 billion in Gujranwala Division while 1,994,492 bags worth Rs6.5 billion still to be sold out in 150 official go-downs in the region.
Flour Mills Association Punjab Vice President Gohar Saeed said that the wheat support price remained less in the open markets than the official price, due to which the trend of purchasing wheat by the flour mills from the food department remained very low.