ISLAMABAD-Strategic wheat reserves of the country during the start week of the current month (September) were recorded at 7.846 million metric tonnes, which is enough to fulfil the local requirements and maintain stocks for keeping the demand and supply smooth in domestic markets.
The government had procured about 5.879 million metric tonnes of wheat during the crop procurement campaign for the year 2023-24, said Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Imtiaz Ali Gopang.
Talking to media here on Monday, he said that grain procurement targets for the current season were fixed at 7.800 million tonnes as out of the total fixed targets about 75 percent was accomplished, adding that Punjab completed 87 percent of its procurement targets as it procured 3.921 million metric tonnes, Sindh 56 percent to procured 777,394 metric tonnes, respectively.
Meanwhile, Balochistan had procured 50,000 metric tonnes, whereas Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) had completed 63 percent of its assigned task as it procured 5.879 million tonnes of wheat, he added.
Food Security Commissioner informed that local carry-forward stocks of wheat in the country were recorded at 1.570 million metric tonnes, which further strengthened the local reserves of grains, adding under import of 2022, the government had also imported about 375,589 metric tonnes of wheat.
So far, the government has released 762,471 metric tonnes of wheat for grinding, adding that private sector procurements had recorded at 3.590 million tonnes, of which 2.656 metric tonnes had been grinded. It is worth mentioning here that wheat production targets during 2022-23 were fixed at 28.37 million metric tonnes, whereas local grain output was estimated at 28.185 million metric tonnes.