Punjab wheat procurement policy targets 3m MT of strategic reserves

LAHORE: The Punjab government has set a strategic wheat reserve target of 3.0 million metric tonnes under the Punjab Wheat Procurement Policy 2026, with 2.5 million metric tonnes to be procured through private-sector aggregators and 0.5 million metric tonnes through government-to-government (G2G) arrangements, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister for Food Safety and Consumer Protection Salma Butt said on Wednesday.

She was presiding over a pre-qualification meeting for the Punjab Wheat Procurement Policy 2026. The meeting was attended by Secretary Food Safety and Consumer Protection Dr Kiran Khurshid, Additional Secretary Khalid Basheer, Director General Food Punjab Amjad Hafeez and other senior officials.

Briefing participants, DG Food Punjab Amjad Hafeez outlined the complete pre-qualification mechanism for selecting aggregators from the private sector to manage and maintain strategic wheat reserves. Representatives of several major organisations and groups, including the Green Pakistan Initiative, Fauji Fertilizer, Louis Dreyfus, Cargill, Dawood Group, Maqsood Group, Askari Bank, Bota Brothers, Lasani Group, Khawaja Group, Ravi Group and Sunny Group, attended the session.

Salma Butt said the deadline for submission of pre-qualification applications to the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Department has been fixed for February 12. Following evaluation, the department will notify the selected aggregators, after which Requests for Proposals (RFPs) will be issued.

She further said that under the policy framework, aggregators would be required to ensure full payment to verified farmers within 72 hours of wheat procurement. The verification of farmers will be carried out by the Divisional Strategic Reserve Management Committees.

To ensure complete transparency, she added, all payments to farmers will be made through crossed cheques and verifiable online banking transactions.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026