March 30, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21, 1429

ISLAMABAD, March 29: The Federal Food Committee (FFC) said on Saturday that the Sindh government’s wheat stocks had plummeted sharply and they were now sufficient only for seven days as the government was facing serious difficulties in procuring wheat from farmers because of low official rate.

The Sindh Food Department needs 119,000 metric tons of wheat to sustain its daily wheat releases to mills up to April 15. On a daily basis, the provincial food department issues 7,000 tons of wheat to mills for grinding.

But, the province had only 28,568 metric tons of wheat available at its godowns on Saturday.

The province can get its share of another 21,222 metric tons from imported wheat, taking its stocks to 49,000 metric tons which will be sufficient only for seven days.

Informed sources told Dawn that flour price in the province was likely to go up in coming days because of a gap between demand and supply. Farmers are not willing to sell their wheat to the government at the official procurement rate of Rs510 per 40 kilograms. The government’s stocks could not be replenished even after the arrival of new wheat.

At a time when Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani was announcing increase in the official procurement rate of wheat to Rs625 per 40kg in the National Assembly, a meeting of the FFC, held at the nearby Prime Minister’s Secretariat, was discussing repercussions of lower than the market price determined by the caretaker government for the procurement of wheat for the current harvest.

A spokesman for the FFC said that the committee had expressed serious concerns over the slow wheat procurement in Sindh because of low support price and the delay in the arrival of imported wheat.

The FFC warned that if both the issues were not addressed immediately, they would have negative impact on the wheat supply chain and the province might come under immense pressure after a week.

The committee directed the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) and Sindh chief secretary to assess the situation and take immediate remedial measures. The committee asked Minfal and the ministry of commerce to look into the matter to resolve the issue quickly.