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Passco to procure 1.4m tons wheat this year
LAHORE, April 9: Pakistan Agricultural Storage &
Services Corporation (Passco) will procure 1.4
million tons of wheat from Punjab, Sindh and
Balochistan this year.
"There is no upper limit for procurement in terms
of quantity, we have arranged enough financial
resources to carry out procurement operations,"
Managing Director Passco, Maj Gen Fahim Akhtar
Khan told a news conference here on Thursday.
General Manager (Field) Passco Brig Pervaiz Akbar
was also present on the occasion.
Of the targeted quantity, the corporation would
procure 1.22 million tons from 15 districts of the
Punjab where procurement would commence on April
10 (Saturday), while it had already kicked off in
Sindh from March 31.
Mr Fahim said that the districts identified for
procurement of 0.15 million tons wheat in Sindh
were Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki, Nawabshah and
Nowshero Feroze. He said that 30,000 tons would be
procured from two districts of Balochistan i.e.
Jaffarabad and Nasirabad.
He observed that State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had
provided a credit line of Rs22 billion at the very
reasonable mark-up rate of 1.74 per cent. Talking
about previous year's experience of wheat
procurement, he said the corporation could not
achieve the target last year due to late beginning
of the process.
"We were able to procure 0.785 million tons wheat
last year against a target of 1.2 million tons,"
he said. The Passco chief said that active
participation of the private sector was likely to
keep wheat prices more stable this time.
Responding to a question, he said that Passco had
communicated its apprehensions about the
possibility of price increase beyond the support
price. He said 60 per cent of the wheat procured
by Passco was stored at open places while 40 per
cent went to the formal storage facilities.
Due to effective storage arrangements, Mr Fahim
said that no losses had been reported from any
part of the country. Answering a query about the
status of the silos construction project on
public-private partnership basis, he said the
government had abandoned the project due to its
non-viability in financial terms.
"The terms and conditions offered by private
sector for the construction and operation of the
silos were not realistic," he observed. The
private sector had suggested a storage cost of
Rs1,075 per ton against Rs50 per ton presently
being spent by Passco for the purpose, he added.
He said Passco and provincial food departments of
Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP presently had
a storage infrastructure, including silos and
traditional godowns, with a total capacity of 4.3
million tons.
The DAWN
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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