January 26, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 22,1423

KARACHI, Jan 25: The Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL), Yar Mohammad Rind will preside over Wheat Disposal Committee meeting on Monday to assess stock and crop position of wheat.

Besides secretaries of finance and commerce the meeting will also be attended by representatives of PASSCO and secretaries of food Punjab and Sindh. The TCP, which has a role of facilitator agency, will also be represented by its chairman Syed Masood Alam Rizvi.

The meeting is expected to review the wheat stock position as well as of new crop. Official sources said that only after the deliberation of the disposal committee the government will be in a position to chalk out its future export strategy and fix exportable surplus of wheat.

According to official estimates, 19.07 million tons of wheat are expected to be produced by the country this year. If the target is achieved the country would be in a position to export more wheat during next season, official sources said.

Presently wheat harvesting is in progress in all the provinces and according to initial reports both Punjab and NWFP are likely to meet the target. However, the province of Sindh is lagging behind in wheat production as its crop had been affected by shortage of irrigation water and delay in sugarcane crushing by mills.