ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has lifted the condition of country specific import of wheat and would now open its tender for 610,000 tons of wheat on January 16, officials told Dawn on Thursday.
The new date for opening of the tender was announced on the recommendation of the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) to do away with the country specific condition for import of white and red wheat.
Additional Secretary Minfal Shahid Hussain Raja confirmed to Dawn that earlier the white wheat import was only allowed from the United States, Australia, and Canada, while the red wheat was importable from Russia and Argentina.
“Now the white and red wheat can be imported from any country. We have already given the importers other specifications — protein, gluten etc., — necessary for the quality of imported wheat,” Mr Raja said.
Pakistan was seeking 150,000 tons of white wheat and 460,000 tons of red wheat by February 25, he said and added the bids were now likely to be opened on January 16 with expected results within a day or two.
A source in the TCP told Dawn that the new specifications had already been conveyed to the pre-qualified bidders. Earlier, the tender was scheduled to open on January 12 and the white wheat tender was invited only from United States, Australia and Canada.
Statistics showed that out of 1.5 million tons of wheat, the letters of credit (LCs) already opened for import of 877,000 tons of wheat. Of these 100,000 tons already reached the country and another shipment of 111,000 tons arrived at Karachi port on Thursday, confirmed the additional secretary food.
He said that by January 31, the total quantity of wheat would be around 300,000 tons, which would be subsequently distributed among the four provinces for overcoming the shortage of wheat flour.
Mr Raja said that the remaining 400,000 tons of wheat would reach the Karachi port by March 15. However, he said it was yet to be decided about the import of 500,000 tons of wheat which would be kept as strategic reserves.
Answering a question he said that the atta supply to all parts of the country would be improved in the next few days. He said that the government was already subsidising the price of imported wheat for the benefit of consumers.
The USA white wheat prices hit record highs in 2007 amid tight global wheat supplies and strong export demand. Pakistan was not the lone importers of wheat from USA but many other countries like South Korea was also importing white wheat to meet their local demands at $514.28 per ton.
Another group of South Korean flour millers bought 11,000 tons of white wheat for $525.68 to $527.52 per ton. Due to this highest ever demand, the price paid to US farmers for white wheat have risen 172 per cent during the last year.
According to the source in the TCP, the price of imported wheat would be finalised in the wake of opening of bids. The landed cost of imported USA white wheat at Karachi port was $511 per ton, which is the highest while the lowest was $453 per ton.