Pakistan has sufficient wheat stocks for local consumption: Imtiaz Ali

September 26, 2023 (MLN): More than 7.89 million metric tons of wheat stocks were available for local consumption and strategic reserves to ensure smooth demand and supply, thereby guaranteeing the availability of flour at affordable prices nationwide.

The government had also procured about 5.889 million metric tons of wheat during the wheat procurement campaign to fulfill the local requirements as well as keep the strategic reserves in the country, Imtiaz Ali Gopang, the Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research said while talking to APP.

The carry-forward stocks of the grains in the country by September 25, 2023, were recorded at 1.61 million tons as compared to the stocks of the same period of last year, said Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Imtiaz Ali Gopang.

Meanwhile, the government has also imported about 375,589 metric tons of wheat during 2022, he said adding that so far the government has released 830,046 metric tons to local millers for producing flour and other products to tackle the local requirements.

The Food Security Commissioner further informed that besides the public sector, the private sector has also procured over 4.068 metric tons of wheat, and out of the total stocks about 3.21m was grinded and supplied to local markets for the provision of flour to local consumers.

Imtiaz Gopan said that currently, about 683,977 metric tons of wheat was also available with the private sector which would also help in strengthening the local commodity reserves and maintain demand and supply.

It is worth mentioning here that wheat output targets were fixed at 28.37m tons during the last season, whereas over 28.18m metric tons were harvested during the period under review.

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