ISLAMABAD, Feb 13 The unloading of the second shipment of 590,000 tons of imported wheat started in Gwadar from Friday and is likely to end by March 5.

Additional Secretary Ministry of Food and Agriculture Shahid Hussain Raja said that a ship, carrying 40,000 tons anchored at the port on Friday morning and it is being transported to Sindh.

He said that another ship, carrying 15,000 tons of wheat, sent by the World Food Programme would arrive on Saturday, adding that another shipment of same weight would reach the port on March 7.

Mr Hussain said that the WFP had borrowed 30,000 tons of wheat from Pakistan last year.

Five more ships carrying wheat are expected to arrive at Gwadar port on Feb 16, 21, 22 and 25 and March 5.

The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has made the imports at average price of $230 per ton mostly from Russia, Brazil and Ukraine, Raja said. Regarding the quality of imported wheat he claimed that the wheat has 25 per cent average gluten content.

Tenders for this import were floated in December last and Letters of Comfort (LCs) were opened in January, he added.

He said that a Letter of Comfort had been opened for another 272,000 tons of wheat and arrivals for the third lot would begin from March 15.

He said that the food ministry had already made disbursement plan for 800,000 tons and the remaining 100,000 tons would be stored at the TCP warehouses.

The government has completed imports of 1.7 million tons of wheat. He said that the private sector had imported some 250,000 tons of wheat up to Feb 1.

Describing position of available stock of wheat, he said as on February 13, the Punjab had 1.1 million tons, Sindh 50,000 tons, NWFP 184,000 tons and Balochistan 65,000 tons.

He pointed out that fresh arrival of 40,000 tons of wheat would significantly boost stocks in Sindh.

The existing wheat stocks would be enough to meet the country`s consumption needs up to March 31 and till then the new crop would start arriving in the market, he said.

Wheat procurement would start from March 1 in Sindh and from April 1 in the Punjab, he said and added the country was expecting bumper crop of 25 million tons.