Islamabad
About 830,619 metric tons of wheat has procured so far under the grains procurement campaign for the year 2019-20 as against the set targets of 8.25 million tons in order to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as for exporting.
The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet had approved wheat procurement targets of the public sector at the level of 8.25 million tons for the period under review for tackling the local needs as well as keeping the strategic reserves, said Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Dr Imtiaz Ali Gopang. While talking to APP here on Saturday, he said that about 10.07 % of the procurement targets had achieved so far whereas the campaign was in full swing all across the wheat growing areas of the country. The Punjab Province has so far procured about 345,228 metric tons of wheat as against the set targets of 4.500 million tons, he said adding that 7.67% of the set target was achieved.
Meanwhile, Sindh Province had completed 22.38% of its set targets as it has procured about 313,323 tons of wheat, he added. However, he said that procurement campaign was not started yet in Balochistan Province,whereas the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had procured about 0.27 metric tons of wheat. The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Service Corporation (PASSCO had also procured about 170,831 metric tons of wheat and achieved about 9.48% of its set task, he added.
The Food Security Commissioner further informed that sufficient wheat stocks of about 0.761 million tons were available in the country to tackle with the domestic consumption whereas new crop has also started to arrive in the local markets. According to data of wheat stocks provided by the provincial food ministries and allied departments to Ministry of National Food Security and Research by the end of last week.—APP
