ECC approves import of 800,000 tons of wheat

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Friday approved the import of 800,000 tons of wheat through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) as the country’s existing strategic food stockpiles are running out.

The ECC in May allowed TCP to import 3 million tons of wheat. The state-run grains body was then allowed to import one million tons of specified milling wheat through international tender and 2 million tons through a government-to-government (G2G) deal.

The TCP has so far managed to import 980,000 tons of wheat through the international tendering process since the first week of October.

The government is also ready to buy wheat from Russia but little progress has been made to finalize any import deal.

A specially formed committee on available wheat stocks in the country reported that the actual shortfall would be at 2.6 million tons, instead of 3 million as estimated earlier.

The ECC, therefore, revised its earlier decision in August to allow the import of 2.6 million tons of wheat.

The import of 1.6 million tons had been distributed equally between the public and private sectors.

But, the federal cabinet in September did not approve import through the private sector and allowed only TCP to import 800,000 tons through open tendering as well as through G2G arrangements.

The import of the remaining quantity of 800,000 is undecided to date.

PASSCO’s wheat stocks are at the level of 3.479 million tons as on October 24, 2022, against the existing commitments of 2.607 million tons. If additional demands of provinces are met from PASSCO stock, the grain body would be left with a shortfall of 167,000 tons at the end of the food year 2023.