Pakistan to import over 3 million metric tons of wheat to meet impending shortfall

Laborers load sacks of wheat flour at a market in Karachi on January 20, 2020. (AFP/ File)

• Government says international wheat market ‘very volatile’ due to the war in Ukraine
• Pakistan has fallen short of its production target of 28.89 million metric tons of wheat

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is planning to import over three million metric tons of wheat in the coming months to meet the local shortfall amid a deteriorating economy and a looming balance of payment crisis, a National Food Ministry official told Arab News on Saturday.
Wheat is a staple food in Pakistan and its shortage can lead to political unrest and protests against governments. In January 2020, limited wheat availability in shops and wholesale markets resulted in severe criticism of former prime minister Imran Khan’s administration.
The country’s new government plans to avert the crisis by importing the staple food to prevent the shortfall.
“We are planning to import around three million metric tons of wheat to meet the local shortfall and ensure food security,” Dr. Javed Humayun, a joint secretary at the Ministry of National Food Security, told Arab News.
The South Asian nation has been importing the grain from Russia and Ukraine for the last three years due to low domestic yield and growing consumption spurred by an increase in population.
Humayun said the international grain market was “very volatile” due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, adding that Pakistan was looking for options other than these countries to import the grain.
He informed that Pakistan would need at least two million metric tons of wheat for its strategic reserves and at least 1.5 million metric tons for the seed this year, besides fulfilling the overall market demand.
“The local wheat harvesting is still underway in Punjab, so we have yet to compile the final data to exactly know the shortfall,” he said, adding the government was committed to importing wheat early to deal with any potential shortage.
Humayun said another reason for the move was to ensure a check on domestic wheat and flour prices.
The government had set a target of 28.89 million metric tons of wheat production this year but experts said Pakistan would hardly produce around 25 million metric tons.
“There are multiple reasons behind the low yield this year, and these include shortage of fertilizers and water at the time of the sowing of the crop,” Ammar Khan, a senior economist and chief risk officer for Karandaaz Pakistan, told Arab News.
He said Pakistan would have to focus on boosting the wheat yield to ensure food security, adding the import of the staple food would otherwise remain a constant burden on the country’s foreign reserves.
Pakistan harvested a bumper crop and produced a record 28.75 million tons of wheat last season. It had to import 2.2 million tons of the grain to meet local requirements and build strategic reserves of one million ton.
AAH Soomro, a Karachi-based senior economist, said Pakistan would have to spend sufficient amount of money to import wheat from the international market as prices of the grain were significantly high due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“We should import the wheat through government-to-government contracts instead of going for the tendering process,” he told Arab News, adding this would help early procurement and shipping of the grain to meet the local demand.