Important meeting of federal and provincial governments to deal with potential wheat crisis
Published 7 hours ago | By Editorial Desk
The second important meeting of the federal and provincial governments in five days to deal with the possible wheat crisis in the country was held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema, in which representatives of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan participated.
In the meeting, Punjab demanded the provision of 1 million tons of wheat from the federal reserves, while Sindh demanded at least 220,000 metric tons.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also expressed the need for 100,000 tons of wheat for the government sector and 700,000 tons for the private sector. According to sources, the federal government also considered the possibility of importing wheat, however, the final decision will be taken after receiving the final requirements in writing from all the provinces.
It was informed in the meeting that the main reasons for the shortage of wheat in the country are two important decisions, including the abolition of the support price two years ago under the conditions of the IMF and the failure of Punjab and Sindh to purchase the required quantity of wheat from farmers this year.
Federal Minister Ahad Cheema said that the interests of local farmers will be protected at all costs and any decision on import will be taken after a complete review of the country's situation.
According to official data, 29.78 million metric tons of wheat were produced in the country this year, while there are also 2 million tons of reserves from last year.
The total available wheat is about 125 thousand tons more than the country's requirement, however, Punjab has failed to maintain the required reserves.
Sources say that the Punjab government could not achieve the target of purchasing 3 million tons of wheat from farmers and only 480 thousand tons of wheat was purchased, while Sindh was also able to purchase a little more than 200 thousand tons of wheat.
In the meeting, Sindh also requested Punjab to relax restrictions on inter-provincial transportation, however, Punjab did not agree to this, citing limited reserves.
According to official data, a significant increase in wheat prices was recorded across the country during the past one month.
The price of 40 kg of wheat in Punjab increased from Rs 4,188 to Rs 4,423, in Sindh to Rs 4,625, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Rs 5,100, and in Balochistan to Rs 4,800.
Due to the high cost of wheat, the price of flour in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi reached Rs 142 per kg, while in Gujranwala it reached Rs 130 per kg.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government’s Finance Advisor Muzammil Aslam said that despite the harvest four months ago, the situation of wheat crisis in the country is alarming. The crisis arose due to the lack of required purchases by Punjab and the only effective solution to reduce prices is to import wheat.
