SINGAPORE, Nov 19: The Government of Pakistan plans to resume wheat exports now that the influx of refugees from Afghanistan is much lower than expected, a senior Pakistani government official said on Monday.

Last month, Pakistani government officials said Islamabad might be forced to give up its plan to export one million tons of wheat because of surging demand for emergency food supplies from refugees.

But on Monday, Shaukat Usman, joint secretary in Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, said the government was no more thinking in terms of halting exports immediately.

The lower-than-anticipated demand for food aid has encouraged Pakistan to come out with another wheat export tender, he added.

“There is no plan to stop wheat exports right now,” Usman told Reuters in a telephone interview from Islamabad. “That is why we have floated another export tender for 100,000 tons.”

Usman said the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation (Passco) had invited bids for export of 100,000 tons of wheat. “The last date for submission of bids is November 29.”

The latest tender is in addition to the two export tenders that were set by the state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan earlier this year.

“We are hoping for a good response. Let’s wait and see what kind of price offers we get,” Usman added.

The United Nations earlier expected about 1.5 million people would flee Afghanistan — most of them to Pakistan — fearing military strikes by the United States, but the actual number has been much lower.

“Last month we expected strong demand to feed the refugees. But it seems the crisis is much smaller than that. Now, we don’t foresee a problem on that front. Otherwise, we would have been compelled to stop exporting the grain,” Usman said.

Pakistan has contracted for more than 600,000 tons of the commodity so far in 2001-02 (July-June).—Reuters