SAHIWAL, May 1: After the green signal by the government for open wheat purchase from the province, the millowners and middlemen from other areas, especially from the NWFP, have started aggressive buying of the produce at higher rates than those offered by the Passco or Food department.

The NWFP middlemen purchasing wheat in the local market are reportedly offering the growers Rs440 for a maund, which is considerably higher than the rate (Rs400) being offered by Passco and the Punjab Food department. These middlemen have set up purchase centres parallel to those set up by the Punjab government at different places.

In some cases, the official purchase inspectors allegedly refer the growers to these private centres after receiving hefty commission from these middlemen. The situation has resulted in a slack wheat purchase at most of the 23 centres of Passco and the 20 set up by the Food department.

According to reports, the NWFP middlemen have so far purchased more that 600,000 bags of 100kg each, against Passco’s 200,000 and Food department’s 243,000.

The combined wheat purchase target of the Food department and the Passco is 3.4 million bags for Sahiwal.