Exporters cancel wheat export orders

Wheat exporters have cancelled over 0.6 million tonne export orders following the announcement of a ban on its exports by the government, trade sources told Business Recorder on Thursday.
"Exporters were busy to find out markets for wheat export after lifting of two-and-half-year ban on wheat export by the Federal government in anticipation of a bumper crop," said a leading exporter.
The international market was facing huge shortage of wheat for the last one year, which provided the local exporters with huge export orders following withdrawal of ban on the wheat export, he added.
"We have booked over one million-tonne wheat export orders from different countries, including India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and other countries," he said. Around 0.4 million-tonne wheat had been exported during the last four-and-half months (January-mid-May) of the current calendar year, while around 0.6 million-tonne wheat orders were still in pending, he said.
For the first time in the history of Pakistan, wheat export to India had begun and over 50,000 tonnes of wheat had been exported to India, which fell short of five million tonnes of wheat during the current year, they informed. "Over 0.6 million tonnes worth 144 million-dollar wheat export orders have been cancelled by the local exporters after the government's ban on wheat export decision," said the exporter.
Most of the orders were received from neighbouring countries, including 300,000 tonnes from India, 50,000 tonnes from Bangladesh and around 250,000 tonnes from other countries, which now have been cancelled in the wake of the government's decision.
He said the exporters had sent letters of credit (LCs) to the Federal government to allow them to fulfil their already booked orders, but the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock officials refused to oblige them. He said the exporters were not pressurising the government to lift the ban on wheat export, but were demanding of it to adopt a clear-export policy on the commodities.
Criticising the government's wheat export policy, he said: "The government's wheat export policy has badly damaged the exporters as well as the country's image, as the government has changed thrice its decision".
They said the exporters had bitter experiences regarding the government's uncertain policies, they had, therefore, timely intimated their buyers that in the case of a sudden ban on wheat export, they would not be responsible for delivery, which saved the exporters from million of rupee losses, said another exporters.
The country have exported over 0.4 million tonnes of wheat, of which around 200,000 tonnes had been exported to Dubai, 75,000 tonnes to India, 50,000 tonnes to Bangladesh and 75,000 tonnes to different destinations, including Vietnam and Indonesia.
It may be mentioned here that on December 27, 2006, the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) lifted a two-and-a-half year ban on wheat export by allowing 0.8 million tonnes exports from 1.8 million-tonne of surplus stocks. The government had also predicted a record crop of wheat of around 23 million tonnes during the current season.
Similarly, the government allowed further 0.5 million-tonne wheat export from old wheat stocks through private sector. Later in May, the government suspended wheat export, aimed at arresting the soaring wheat prices in the local market, while in the last week of June, the government finally announced a ban on wheat export till the decline in the prices to the previous level of Rs 10,625 per tonne in the domestic market.