Saba Javed

Pakistan has 5.798 million metric tons of wheat available in its strategic reservoirs, according to the Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema. He was responding to a question posed during the question-answer session of the National Assembly when he informed that out of 5.798 million MT, 2.188 million MT were with PASSCO, 2.595 million MT with Punjab, 0.806 million MT with Sindh, 0.159 million MT with KPK, and 49,630 MT with Balochistan.

The stock left from last year with Punjab was 0.508 million MT as of 1^st May, 2022, to which were added an extra 4.434 million MT, increasing the total stock of the province to 4.943 million MT. Out of the total stock, 2.348 million MT were released, after which only 2.595 million MT remained with the province. Similarly, the house was informed that in Sindh, 50,000 MT was forwarded from last year to which were added 0.883 million MT of wheat, raising the total stock to 1.061 million MT.

Out of this total stock, 0.254 million MT was released and the balance stock currently stood at 0.806 million MT. As for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the total forwarded stock as of May 1, 2022 stood at 40.212 MT to which were added extra 0.460 million MT, raising the total stock to 0.501 million MT. KPK’s total stock of 0.341 million MT has already been released, reducing the total stock to 0.159 million MT.

The province of Baluchistan had carried forward 20,000 million MT of wheat as of May 1st, 2022 and after the procurement of 29,630 MT, the total stock was raised by 49,630 MT. The province did not release any wheat so far, so the balance stock remained at 49,630 MT wheat. Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation Ltd (PASSCO) had carried forward a total wheat stock of 1.232 million MT by 1st May, 2022.

It procured an extra 1.266 million MT wheat, raising the total stock to 3.479 million MT. Of this total, 1.291 million MT has already been released, reducing the total stock to a balance amount of 2.188 million MT. As for the total wheat stock for the whole of Pakistan, the stock carried forward by May 1st, 2022 was 1.831 million MT and after the procurement of 6.614 million MT by all provinces including PASSCO, the total stock of Pakistan was raised to 10.035 million MT. Of this grand total, 4.236 million MT of wheat was released by all provinces including PASSCO. Therefore, the total balance stock has reduced to 5.798 million MT, the National Assembly was told.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk