By IANS
Lahore : Pakistan stands to lose Rs.10 billion this year after exporting wheat to India and elsewhere at low prices and now having to import to meet domestic needs.
Bungling by the civil bureaucracy that decided on exports, despite warnings of a shortage in the local market, and the role of “seasonal exporters” who procured wheat directly from farmers to get rich are the reasons being attributed for this.
Unnamed sources in the Punjab Food Department told Daily Times that exports raised domestic prices and caused shortages, requiring imports at international prices that rose because of a production slump in Australia and other wheat producing nations.
Pakistan had a bumper wheat crop of 23.52 million tonnes, sufficient for domestic consumption, but it exported the food grain in view of the high demand in the global market even though prices were low, the newspaper said.
Pakistan exported 1.3 million metric tonnes (MTs) when the price was $222 per MT, earning around Rs.17.5 billion.
The export of wheat remained high till the end of May 2007. However, the government halted wheat export by the end of the month because of domestic shortages, said Bilal Aslam Soofi of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).
He said exporters bought wheat from farmers and the market and it resulted in hoarding and price hikes. According to him, the decision to export resulted in increasing prices, touching a record high in September.
When the government decided to import one million tonnes of wheat, the rate in the international market was at least double that of the price at which Pakistan had exported.
Soofi claimed that the government would import wheat at around $440 or Rs.26,840 per metric tonne, causing a loss of Rs.10 billion.