3-year ban on wheat exports lifted

[Hyde]

3-year ban on wheat exports lifted​

Updated at: 2058 PST, Tuesday, December 07, 2010
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet decided on Tuesday to allow the private sector to export wheat, lifting a three-year ban after a bumper crop led to a market surplus.

Pakistan, Asia's third-largest wheat producer, in August deferred earlier plans to export 2 million tonnes of surplus wheat after summer floods washed away at least 725,000 tonnes of the grain and raised concern about the next crop.

Traders said in early November, however, that despite damages from summer floods, Pakistan still has a surplus for export after a bumper crop of 23.86 million tonnes in 2009/10 added to a carryover of 4.2 million tonnes from the previous crop.

"The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet ... decided to lift the ban on export of wheat," the finance ministry said in a statement, confirming earlier comments on the decision made by finance ministry officials.

The ECC is the government's highest economic decision-making body.

The statement did not mention any limit on the quantity of exports, but two Finance Ministry officials who attended the meeting said earlier that 1 million tonnes of wheat had been allowed to be shipped by the private sector.

Pakistan consumes about 22 million tonnes of wheat annually. The sowing for the next crop is underway, and harvesting will begin in April.

The government banned wheat exports in 2007 because of shortages and high prices in the domestic market.

The central government last month set an ambitious target for the 2010/11 crop of 25 million tonnes of wheat, despite vast damage to farmland in Punjab and in Sindh.

Experts see a good wheat crop as vital to help flood-affected farmers and revive agriculture, the backbone of the economy which suffered an estimated $5 billion in flood losses.

 

[Evil Flare]

now again we'll have wheat shortages