LAHORE, June 2: The Punjab Food Department had bought 2.38 million tons of wheat till Monday.

However, gunny bags, which can carry around 0.32 million tons of wheat, are still with the growers. If the rest of the gunny bags return, though its chances have become low because of average price in the open market ranging between Rs305 to Rs325 per 40kgs, the department will end up with 2.7 million tons.

The wheat procurement had almost come to a halt in the last week. It has come down to 2,000 to 3,000 tons a day.

Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation has also procured around 0.77 million tons, the Pakistan Flour Millers Association 0.6 million tons and private stockists have purchased 0.6 million tons of wheat.

According to the food department officials, the government will have to relax the procurement procedure next year to compete with the private sector. Otherwise, it will run the risk of ‘losing’ in the open market. It will also have to create more centres and increase support price to ensure food security in the province, they add.

About total consumption, they said the PFMA normally bought 2.6 million tons from the department. Its buying quantity might go down because it had already purchased around 0.6 million tons from the open market, they said.

The officials believed that market forces would determine the fate of the 0.6 million tons. They would sell it where they would get the right kind of profit, so the procured quantity could hardly be counted in national calculations, they added.