SINGAPORE, June 23: Pakistan is very likely to return to the market to import wheat and some buyers are sniffing around for cargoes from the Black Sea region, grain traders said on Thursday.

“There is a need to import,” said one Karachi-based trader. “The government will possibly decide next week on the amount of wheat the country needs.”

Some traders in Singapore added that one Pakistani buyer may have already bought about 35,000 tons of milling wheat from either Russia or Ukraine but the deal could not be confirmed.

If Pakistan starts importing again, it would be for the first time in almost three months. Between late last year and March 2005, Pakistan imported about 1.4 million tons of the grain to meet a domestic shortfall.

Earlier this month, some Pakistani government officials had said the country would not need to import more wheat this year following a bumper domestic harvest that had helped to lift domestic stocks to comfortable levels.

Pakistan harvested a wheat crop of 19.2 million tons last year and government officials are expecting domestic production to be higher in 2005.—Reuters