[Admin]

Wheat import target raised to 2.5m tonnes

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has raised its wheat import target to 2.5 million tonnes this year from 1.5 million tonnes to build strategic reserves, the prime minister’s office said in a statement on Monday.

Pakistan expects wheat output of 21.8 million tonnes this year, below a target of 24 million tonnes, and 1 million tones less than domestic requirements. Last month, the government said it will import 1.5 million tonnes of wheat to meet the needs.

“Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani asked the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to import 2.5 million tonnes of wheat, including the 1.5 million tonnes already approved ... to build strategic reserves,” the office said in a statement.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza also directed provincial governments and law enforcement agencies to take measures against smuggling and hoarding of wheat besides cracking down on profiteers.

High food prices lifted Pakistan’s consumer price inflation to 17.2 per cent year-on-year in April. Regarding a 5 million tonne domestic wheat procurement target set by the government last month, a senior Food and Agriculture Ministry official, Qadir Bukhsh Baloch, said that 3 million tonnes of wheat had been bought from farmers.

Procurement would continue next month, he said. In March, the government raised the price it pays to farmers for wheat by nearly 23 per cent after failing to tempt producers to sell the grain for strategic stocks. The UN World Food Programme has said nearly half of Pakistan’s 160 million people risk going short of food because of a surge in prices.

[Neo]

interesting post....
since my child hood i've led to believe that PAKISTAN is an agricultural country.... n since then i've seen them importing wheat... mainly from USA..
.. GOOD LUCK PAKISTAN..

thanxxx.. Co-ADMIN jii..