The government saved $13 million on wheat imports in the second tender. For the second batch of wheat imports, under the direction of the Prime Minister, $34.54 per MT was saved on 300,000 MT of wheat, which amounts to $13 million.
The wheat production estimate for the current year is around 26.389 MMT, while the reserves from the previous year were 1.806 MMT. This lifts the total wheat reserves to 28.199 MMT against the total national demand of 30.79 MMT.
The government decided on the timely import of wheat through the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to eliminate the gap between demand and reserves.
This was revealed in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif reviewing the current reserves, potential demand, and import tenders for wheat.
The attendees of the meeting were further apprised that the government’s agreement with Russia on the import of 2 million MT of wheat was in the final stages. They were also informed of the details of the progress of the import of wheat through Gwadar port.
The Prime Minister also called for the process to be expedited and issued special instructions for the buffer stock to be determined and a report to be submitted soon.
The meeting was also attended by the Federal Ministers Miftah Ismail, Syed Naveed Qamar, Tariq Bashir Cheema, and other relevant senior officials.