Local Wheat Stocks Recorded At Over 5.614 Million Tons

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Nov, 2022 ) :Wheat stocks of the country recorded at over 5.614 million tons, which were sufficient to tackle local consumption as well as maintaining the strategic reserves till the arrival of the next crop.

The carry forward reserves of grains during the week in progress were recorded at over 1.831 million tons as the government had procured about 6.614 million tons during the last procurement season to fulfill the domestic requirements of staple gains as well as keeping the strategic reserves, said a senior official in the Ministry of National food Security and Research.

Talking to APP here on Friday, he said that the government has so far imported about 863,314 metric tons of wheat in order to keep local demand and supply smooth as well as maintaining price stability in local markets.

The total availability of the grains during the season was recorded at 9.308 million tons and so far the government has released 4.711 million tons of wheat in order to provide flour and other products in local markets, he added.

Meanwhile, the private sector had also procured about 3,921,762 metric tons of wheat from the growers, he said adding that out of the total procured commodity, 3,018,622 metric tons grinded, hence private sector wheat stocks were recorded at 903,140 metric tons.

He further informed that the wheat sowing campaign across the country was in full swing as the grain sowing has been completed in over 50.85 percent of areas against the set targets for the current season (2022-23).

So far the wheat cultivation completed over 11.62 million acres of land across the grain-producing areas in the country as the sowing targets of the crop Rabi 2022-23 was fixed at 22.86 million acres in order to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as for exporting.

The crop sowing in Punjab was completed in over 56.06 percent of areas and wheat was cultivated over 9.24 million acres, adding that crop sowing in rain-fed areas of all four provinces witnessed encouraging trends due to timely rains and incentives introduced by the government to revive the agriculture sector in the country.

Meanwhile, wheat sowing in Sindh Province was completed by 36.20 percent as it brought about 1.01 million acres under grains cultivation, he said adding that wheat cultivation targets for the province were fixed at 2.79 million acres for the period under review.

Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cultivated wheat over 1.37 million acres of land as compared to its assigned targets of 2.22 million acres, he said adding that the province has completed the sowing of over 61.71 percent of areas.