ISLAMABAD: Amid falling international wheat prices, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet has decided to link the opening of tender for the import of wheat from Russia with a lower price of $390 per tonne.

The ECC meeting chaired by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on Friday decided that the Russian side may be offered the price of $390 per tonne and the tender may be scrapped if they do not accept the offer. It was observed in the meeting that there is a declining trend in the price of wheat which may further drop in the coming days.

The wheat production is projected to be 26.173 million tonnes this year against a target of 28.89m tonnes while the estimated consumption would be around 30.79m tonnes.

On May 28, the ECC decided to import 2m tonnes of wheat on a government-to-government (G2G) basis, while 1m tonnes through an international tendering process under the existing arrangement to pre-empt shortage and rising prices.

Asks TCP to cancel tender if Moscow refuses to accept offer

In this regard, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research submitted a summary on the supply of milling wheat from Russia on G2G basis.

In compliance with the ECC decision regarding the import of 3 million tonnes of wheat, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan initiated the process of import of wheat from the Russian government.

In this context, an MoU was signed between a Russian state-owned enterprise (SOE) and TCP on June 8. Initially, the government of Russia offered a wheat price of $410 per tonne.

The Prime Minister’s Office has constituted a committee under Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi to negotiate with the Islamabad-based Russian Embassy on the price issue of imported wheat.

Meanwhile, the Russian delegation met with the Minister for Commerce Naveed Qamar and offered a reduced price of wheat at the rate of $405 per tonne.

Later on, the price was further reduced to $400 per tonne.

The Ministry of Food Security on the recommendations of the commerce ministry submitted the price offered by M/s Prodintorg, a state-owned company of the government of Russia at the rate of $399.50 per tonne for a supply of 120,000 tonnes for the consideration of the ECC.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2022