The Punjab Food Department during the current wheat procurement campaign, which ended on June 30 last, purchased a total of 2.479 million tonnes wheat from growers across the province.
Punjab Food Secretary Muhammad Ahsan Raja told newsmen here on Friday that Sindh, North West Frontier Province, the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) and the private sector had also met their food grain requirements from the open market in Punjab.
However, the Department here, due to the open market competition, had so far not been able to meet the procurement target of 3.5 million tonnes, he disclosed.
The Secretary observed that department had about 2.5 million tonnes wheat in stock at present, that figure included the previous stock.
He said the main objective of the free access policy to the private sector in the province was to fully ensure the payment of support price to the farmers. We had achieved that goal, set by the Punjab Chief Minister, as all wheat growers had sold their produce at or above the government support price, he added.
That would go a long way to improve the financial status of farmers, he said. Buyer form the private sector in other provinces also procured wheat on cash payment from farmers to meet their needs, as there was no restriction on the inter-provincial movement of the commodity, he added.
To a query, Ahsan Raja responded "Except for a few insignificant instances, we have not received any serious complaint from any grower during the current wheat procurement campaign".