KARACHI, March 12: Egypt has shown keen interest in purchase of 300,000 tons of wheat from Pakistan to meet its domestic shortfall, official sources said.

This major breakthrough became possible after a small quantity of 25,000 tons of wheat, recently imported by a private Egyptian party, was well received, the sources said.

Despite a ban on wheat import from Pakistan for being infected with ‘Karnal Bunt’ disease caused by smut-ball fungus of genus ‘Tilletia’ a the party imported this quantity.

The Egyptian importer got sample of wheat shipment received from Pakistan lab tested. The results of the test showed that no such disease existed which is commonly known to be the problem with Indian wheat. Encouraged by this development the head of this private company from Egypt recently led a delegation to Islamabad, where he held several meetings with high officials of Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal).

During the stay the Egyptian delegation showed their willingness to purchase 200,000 to 300,000 tons of wheat, but sources said that the Pakistan government should approach the Egypt to seek removal of quarantine conditions on the wheat.

Egypt annually imports around six million tons of wheat to meet its domestic shortfall. Most of imports are handled at government- to-government level but there is also a major chunk handled by a few private importers.

The sources said the disease problem of Karnal Bunt is in fact not with Pakistani wheat rather it is with Indian wheat as it is obvious from its name which is based on Indian wheat growing region.

On the other hand, the government is keen to see that around 1.3 million tons of wheat from 2000-2001 crop is exported before end-April as new crop arrival will soon create storage problem for the Minfal and Passco.

After producing around 18.9 million tons of wheat during the 2000-01 crop year the government is targeting 20 million tons from the current crop.

In order to have a permanent place in the world wheat market the government is keen to annually export around 0.5m tons of wheat and has also involved private sector in its exports.

Despite some logistic problems the country up to Oct 2001, exported around 350,000 tons of wheat.