LAHORE: With gunny bags for over 350,000 ton wheat procurement already distributed in the last four days, the Punjab Food Department will start procuring wheat at its centres throughout the province from Sunday (today).

However, given the weather pattern, the department thinks that the crop, as always, will start trickling in from south Punjab – Bahawalpur and Multan divisions. In the last four days, it has distributed 3.5 million bags in both divisions.

From Saturday, the food department expanded the distribution to Dera Ghazi Khan division as well and would start moving to central and northern parts in the next week.

“The gunny bags have arrived at all centres of the province but the farmers have not started purchasing them because of the delayed cutting of the crop due to wet weather,” says an official of the department.

There was rain forecast in certain parts on Saturday also so department thinks that distribution would only pick up the pace early next week. The farmers are just waiting in the wings; they would quickly move in once the weather gets clear. The climatic phenomenon had caused huge uncertainty over the crop and the farmers would not wait any longer now, the official predicted.

The situation would, however, create a glut-like situation in the market where price can crash, warns Majid Abdullah of Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA). The harvesting period is getting squeezed with each passing day and the crop which is very healthy if the early clues are something to go by would hit the market in three weeks.

That is where the catch lies. If the Food Department procures wheat slow, it would not be able to stabilise the market. If it purchases quickly, meets its target and gets out of the market, it would leave farmers at the mercy of the private sector, which would then dictate both price and pace of the purchase.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Food department has been able to reduce its stocks by another 200,000 tons wheat because of delayed harvesting and imposition of Section 144 in Sindh, banning wheat movement.

“The department has never released so much wheat during April as it did this time,” says a department employee. It was hoping to carry forward over 300,000 tons but its stocks are now down to 125,000 tons only.

It is still releasing up to 6,000 tons a day to districts like Rawalpindi where wheat has not started arriving from the lower parts of the province. These additional sales have benefited the department on two accounts; sales have brought money and cleared stocks. With stocks down, the department would have even a better margin of maneuvering should there be any need, he hoped.

On the other hand, wheat has started arriving in the market from desert areas of Bahawalnagar and Baseerpur. These areas received less rain and air is normally dry, making the crop mature very quickly. These fresh arrivals have reduced the price from Rs1,380 per maund two weeks ago to Rs1,280 per maund presently.

The department hopes that the price would come down further to equal the officially declared price of Rs1,200 per maund once the wheat arrival gathers momentum in the next few days and help the department procure commodity and meet its target of 3.5 million ton.