KARACHI, Aug 27: A wheat delegation comprising private and public sector members will be leaving for Egypt and Morocco next month to explore government-to-government as well as private sector export deals with both the countries.

The chairman of Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), Syed Masood Alam Rizvi will lead the team. There will be private sector exporters and officials of government of Punjab who would be working as supplier in case any deal is finalized.

Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood during his visit to Morocco last month, besides other matters also took up the matter for wheat import from Pakistan.

A major breakthrough is expected in the wheat markets of both the countries who presently heavily dependent on imports from the West.

Egypt annually imports around six million tons of wheat to meet its domestic demand, similarly, Morocco is expected to follow suit.

Earlier this year a technical as well as private sector wheat importer from Egypt visited Pakistan to have first hand information and to assess wheat quality.

However, a leading private sector Egyptian importer of wheat showed keen interest in wheat and suggested that some samples be sent for verification and lab test.

On receiving favourable results of the wheat samples Pakistani embassy in Cairo indicated that a wheat delegation should be sent next month.

As a result of these developments presently an itinerary is being prepared for the team members who are expected to visit both the countries.

It is highly surprising that Egypt for the last 45 years had been under a wrong notion that Pakistani wheat is suffers from Karnal Bunt disease.