March 16, 2022: The government would procure about 6 million tons of wheat during the current season in order to fulfil the domestic requirements as well as keep the strategic reserves, besides keeping demand and supply at a smooth level in local markets across the country.
In this regard, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has submitted a summary before the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet for final approval and the committee would consider it in its next meeting scheduled to be held on March 17 (Thursday), said an official.
Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that the committee would also set procurement targets for Sindh and Balochistan provinces during the current season (2022-23), besides making deliberation to ensure the provision of minimum support price to achieve a better rate of returns for farming communities.
He further informed that provincial governments have also finalized their all arrangements to initiate procurement campaigns for the current season, adding that the respective governments have also established their procurement centres to facilitate the growers to sell their produces at official fixed rates.
Besides, the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) has also set up the procurement centres in different areas and distributed areas in zones, he said adding that arrangements for the distribution of gunny bags were also aligned to facilitate the farmers.
Meanwhile, he said that abundant wheat stocks of over 3.036 million tons were available to meet local consumption, adding that available stocks were sufficient to tackle the needs of 77 days with an average consumption of 40,000 tons per day.
He further informed that local wheat consumption for the current season was estimated at 30.97 million tons with an average per-capita consumption of 115 kg per annum.
