SINGAPORE (March 24 2004): Pakistan will not seek replacement wheat imports for four Australian cargoes it rejected on quality grounds, the head of the country's state-run grain storage firm told Reuters on Tuesday.

"There is no need to seek fresh cargoes. Our wheat harvest is just starting and the crop is expected to be good," said Fahim Akhtar Khan, managing director of Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corp (PASSCO).

The month-long uncertainty over the fate of the cargoes - totalling 150,000 tonnes - ended after the last cargo was sold to Indonesia on Tuesday. Three cargoes had already sailed during the weekend - two for Sri Lanka and one for Dubai.

Khan added there were enough stocks of wheat in the country and no shortage was expected, even without more imports.

Tradesman International, a Pakistani trading firm, had bought the cargoes from AWB and had agreed to sell them to PASSCO at $224.75 per tonne C&F. "We have sold the fourth cargo to Indonesia. All the cargoes have moved out of Pakistan waters," Haroon Suleman, chief executive of Tradesman International, told Reuters.

"We were forced to sell these cargoes due to the undue and unjustified rejection of PASSCO," Suleman added. "But it is not over yet because we are not going to take these losses." But PASSCO's Khan said, "The cargoes were not as per specifications."

Pakistan announced plans last year to import about 500,000 tonnes of wheat, saying it needed to fill a shortfall and build strategic reserves. The decision was taken after bad weather kept local farms from hitting their production targets. Wheat output in 2002/03 was about 19.25 million tonnes, against a target of 19.70 million.

"It is difficult to estimate at this stage but we could have a crop of over 20 million tonnes. The harvest in some regions has started. But the main harvest will start in mid-April," he said.

Courtesy Business Recorder