Daily Times

The wheat stocks of the country by the second week of the first week January 2024 were recorded at over 6.154 million metric tons, which is sufficient to tackle the local dietary needs.

Besides these reserves were enough for keeping the strategic stocks as well as maintaining supply and demand smoothly in local markets to provide the commodity at reasonable prices, said Food Security Commissioner of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that out of the total stocks, the carry forward of the grains was recorded at 1.610 million metric tons, whereas the government had procured about 5.998 million metric tons during last year’s wheat procurement drive.

Meanwhile, the wheat reserves in Punjab province comprised over 3.498 million tons, Sindh has 0.817 million tons, whereas Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 0.182 million tons of grains that were enough to meet local consumption of flour and other byproducts during the season, he added.

Balochistan has 0.089 million tons of wheat, whereas the wheat stock of Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporation (PASSCO) was recorded at 1.567 million tons, he added.

Traditionally, he said that the government was releasing about 46,000 metric tons of wheat per day in local markets for milling to maintain a smooth supply of the commodity across the country and provide wheat and flour at affordable prices to consumers, he added.

Under the mechanism, the Punjab Province was releasing about 25,000 metric tons, whereas Sindh releasing 10,000 metric tons, KP 55,00 metric tons, Balochistan 1,000 metric tons and average release of 5,300 metric tons by PASSCO, he added.

“These reserves are poised to meet the country’s vital requirements till Mach 2024 and after this period, the commencement of the new crop harvest season will see a surge in grain availability in local markets, further bolstering the carry-forward stocks,” he added.

Meanwhile, the government has encouraged and supported the private sector to import wheat as so far about 700,000 tons of wheat have been imported, whereas an additional 1.487 million tons of wheat are to be imported in order to ensure smooth demand and supply till the arrival of new crop.

It is worth mentioning here that the wheat crop has been sown across more than 22.81 million acres of land in various crop-growing regions during the current Rabi season to meet staple food requirements as well as to maintain strategic reserves throughout the year.

The crop sowing targets for the current season (2023-24) were fixed at 22.22 million acres as the cultivation targets surpassed by 102.67 percent.