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Private sector dominates wheat purchase
LAHORE, April 20: The
wheat procurement drive is in full swing in the
province, with price hovering between Rs345 and
Rs365 for a 40kg bag. With the arrival of fresh
crop, a cut-throat competition among the buyers of
public and private sectors is expected during the
next few days.
According to market analysts, about one-fifth of
the crop has already been procured by the buyers
during the first week of the drive, which started
on April 10. During this period, the growers have
generally got more than the official price of
Rs350 per maund largely due to the fact that the
crop this year matured almost two weeks earlier
than the routine time, as unexpected temperatures
gripped the plains of the Punjab in March.
Wheat procurement normally starts after April 15
in the Punjab, but both government agencies - the
Punjab Food Department and the Pakistan
Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation -
went into buying spree from April 10.
The food department has succeeded in procuring
280,000 tons of wheat till Sunday and Passco
around 146,877 tons. Last year, Passco started its
procurement campaign on April 26.
Apart from public sector, private parties from all
the four provinces are playing major role in the
whole process. They are in the market with clear
advantages in that they can offer higher prices,
do not have to worry much about quality and
transparency, and can pay advance money to farmers
for keeping crop with them and sell them later.
Most of these parties, especially from outside the
Punjab, have been offering more than the official
support price and dealers are directly contacting
growers to lift the maximum quantity.
Owing to aggressive purchase by the private
parties, the public sector is least likely to
achieve the official wheat procurement target. The
federal government had set the target of 5.6
million tons this year - 3.5 million tons for the
Punjab, 1.4 million tons for Passco, 0.6 million
tons for Sindh, and 0.1 million tons for
Balochistan.
The food department officials are not confident
about achieving the target, but at least 2.5
million tons of wheat to meet the food security
target. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Flour Mills
Association's executive committee on Monday
demanded the Punjab government that it should ban
all other stockists, except the flour millers,
from buying wheat.
The provincial government has turned a deaf ear to
the millers' proposals during the procurement. The
informal sector is currently dominating the
procurement drive and is likely to stock the crop
and fleece the public at some stage.
The DAWN
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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