KARACHI, March 4: The fourth Australian ship carrying imported wheat has reached Port Qasim and is now in the outer anchorage. The PASSCO officials have collected wheat samples from the fourth ship in presence of the visiting Australian experts on Friday.

"The four ships have brought a total of 148,000 tons of wheat from Australia," an official informed Dawn by telephone on Thursday. The third ship carrying wheat reached here last Thursday and wheat samples were collected from this Ship on Sunday.

The PASSCO official said that wheat samples have also been collected from the two ships which arrived here earlier last month for a fresh laboratory test.

A well placed source in the Food and Agricultural Ministry informed Dawn that a team of scientists and analysts headed by Dr Kausar has been formed to carry out test of the wheat samples from all the four ships in a Food Grain Laboratory of the National Agricultural Research Council in Islamabad.

He said that the Laboratory has been set up recently and is well equipped to carry out 24 tests of the food grains. If found necessary, the wheat samples may be sent in other laboratories to detect presence of karnal bunt fungus.

Earlier, the laboratory tests of the wheat samples of two ships were found infested with karnal bunt fungus and their glutton and food content was different than demanded in the specification given to the importer at the time of bidding.

The Australian authorities are contesting laboratory test results of their wheat in Pakistan laboratories on two grounds. First they assert that Australian wheat is not infested with Karnal bunt fungus. Their second point is that the wheat was tested by a French pre-shipment inspection company.

A source in the food and agricultural ministry said that the Australian firm which provided wheat did give two pre shipment certificates for their wheat. "But these are a sort of a general certificate which declares wheat consignment to be satisfactory," he said.

Enquiries made at different levels suggest that the imported wheat was never declared unfit for human consumption. "Its content were found to be different than those demanded in the specification," he said.

Trade circles say that if Pakistan government rejects imported Australian wheat then the issue may be taken up at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) level for arbitration and dispute settlement.

Officials say that imported wheat cost about Rs500 a maund as against Rs350 given to the local farmers. They say that total loss to be suffered on account of this import is more than Rs800 million. In case the wheat import is accepted the consignment will go to PASSCO for strategic stocks.

Meanwhile, the wheat has started trickling in the local market from the small scale harvest in lower Sindh. With reports of wheat arrivals from the fresh crops, the traders and millers in Punjab and Sindh have also started unloading their hoarded stocks.

"During last week more than 40,000 tons have been brought into open market by the millers and traders in Punjab and Sindh," a well known commodity merchant said who disclosed that about 200,000 tons of wheat is expected to be brought in the market by March 15.

The government have about 800,000 tons of stocks and market analysts expect wheat prices and that of flour to start creeping down.

There is no ban on inter-district and inter provincial movement of wheat in Sindh and Punjab. But provinces are taking administrative and fiscal measures that restricts wheat movement.

This is being done to ensure that Sindh government carries out procurement successfully at more than 350 centres. Since open market wheat prices are now ranging between Rs400 to Rs450 a maund, the farmers are reluctant to sell their crop to the government procurement centres.

But officials are confident of launching wheat procurement drive from next weeks for which Sindh government is seeking Rs4.5 billion loans from the banks. "We hope to get bank loan on 1.72 per cent," a well placed source said.

He said that government was inviting bids from the banks next week. It is expected that all five major banks will be involved in procurement drive. The wheat procurement is spread over 12 wheat growing districts of the province and is expected to pick up momentum by middle of this month.