LAHORE: The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Ltd (PASSCO) has moved a summary which is likely to be taken in the next meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for importing 300,000 metric tons of wheat in addition to its earlier commitments to meet the demand generated by the Utility Stores Corporation (USC).

"The Utility Stores Corporation (USC) has asked the government to get 300,000 metric tons of wheat imported by the PASSCO due to its fine quality. The Ministry of Food Security enquired us about providing of the same, and we conveyed that our present stocks and wheat being imported are not sufficient to meet this additional demand," said the PASSCO General Manager (Field) Major Muzahir Iqbal (r) while addressing a press conference here on Friday.

He said now the ball is in the court of the government whether it assigns the task to PASSCO to import this wheat on a government-to-government basis or involves the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) or the private sector for the said purpose.

Major Muzahir said the PASSCO had been given the task to import 500,000 metric tons of wheat out of which two vessels carrying 63,000 metric tons and 66,000 metric tons had already reached Pakistan. The first consignment of 63,000 metric tons was allocated to the Punjab government to meet its demand while the second vessel is in process of unloading. Two vessels are at the loading docks while rest would also reach by March-end.

"The imported wheat is sufficient to meet the requirements from the PASSCO in addition to keeping the strategic reserves, which the Corporation holds for the emergency requirements," Muzahir responded to a query.

Replying to a question, he said the wheat imported by the Corporation is not inferior to the indigenous crop by any means. "We negotiated with the Russian federation on all parameters including the level of gluten, protein, moisture etc," he added.

He said they have not only tested its milling quality but also the cooking quality and it is same in the cooking and taste as flour of Pakistani wheat.

Regarding another query, he said that Pakistan was reaping surplus crop since two years and both in 2018 and 2019, production of wheat was short because of climate change and global warming. He said our production target last year was of 27 million tons but we fell short by 1.5 million tons.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020