Islamabad: Pakistan will import 0.180 MMT of wheat from Russia on, as part of an arrangement to increase supplies. The Pakistani government is ready to sign a MoU with Moscow for the supply of grain on a government-to-government basis.PASSCO has been nominated as a procurement agency on behalf of Government of Pakistan to negotiate terms and conditions with the Russian side.Cabinet has already approved the MoU.Shipments from Russia are likely to arrive in November. The pre checking of the wheat will be completed in Russia and later on quality inspection will be done by DPP as their SOPs at Karachi port. Pakistan also strategizes to import 1.5 million tons of wheat through state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan, while more than 1 million tons of the grain will be imported by the private sector.
Syed Fakhar Imam, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research has mentioned that 18 vessels have been booked for 1.092 MMT of imported wheat by Private sector till January. Out of which 7 vessels carrying 0.432 MMT is already at home. He mentioned that TCP has agreed to import 0.330 MMT of wheat which is expected to be arrived during October, 2020 to January, 2021.And next tender of TCP for 0.30 MMT will be opened on coming Monday.
The current position of wheat stocks include Punjab with 3,059,219 tonnes,Sindh with 1,259,395 tonnes,KPK with 90,109 tonnes,Balochistan with 65,082 tones and PASSCO with 701,259 ton