ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday lauded efforts of Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Murtaza Mehmood for making timely arrangements for import of edible oil from Indonesia.

During a meeting with the minister, he said the import of edible oil would help red­uce prices of the commodity in the country.

Mr Sharif said the visit of the minister of industries and productions to Indonesia at his own expense to sort out the issue was commendable.

On the directive of the prime minister, Mr Mehmood urgently visited Indonesia to finalise edible oil import deal to stop mounting prices of the commodity in the markets of the country.

The efforts led to supply of 2.5 million tonnes of edible through 10 ships from Indonesia.

The first consignment of the edible oil was dispatched from Indonesia to Pakistan during the visit of the minister to Indonesia.

The visit of Mr Mehmood to Indonesia was preceded by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s talks by phone with Indonesia President Joko Widodo on June 10.

Later on the directive of the prime minister, a Pakistani team held successful talks with the Indonesian ministry of trade for importing edible oil.

The delegation included Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers’ Associa­tion chairman Tariqullah Sufi and member Rashid Jan Muhammad.

However, there was no information on which terms and conditions the edible oil was being sent to Pakistan by Indonesia.

Last month, a meeting of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Supply of Palm Oil, presided over by Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar at the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan to review the supply of the commodity in the domestic market, had noted that the edible oil stocks were sufficient to meet next two months’ demand in the country.

The task force had been recently constituted to ensure there was no disruption to supply of edible oil in the local market.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2022