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.
Pakistan to import over 3 million metric tons of wheat to meet impending shortfall
https://arab.news/5vfn3
Pakistan to import over 3 million metric tons of wheat to meet impending shortfall
- 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
At ECO meeting, Pakistan proposes ‘Regional Innovation Hub’ to curb natural disasters
- Pakistan hosts high-level 10th ECO Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction in Islamabad
- Innovation hub to focus on early warning technologies, risk informed infrastructure planning
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has proposed to set up a “Regional Innovation Hub on Disaster Risk Reduction” that focuses on early warning technologies and risk informed infrastructure planning, the Press Information Department (PID) said on Wednesday, as Islamabad hosts a high-level meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
The ECO’s 10th Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is being held from Jan. 21-22 at the headquarters of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in Pakistan’s capital.
The high-level regional forum brings together ministers, and senior officials from ECO member states, representatives of the ECO Secretariat and regional and international partner organizations. The event is aimed to strengthen collective efforts toward enhancing disaster resilience across the ECO region, the PID said.
“Key agenda items include regional cooperation on early warning systems, disaster risk information management, landslide hazard zoning, inclusive disaster preparedness initiatives, and Pakistan’s proposal to establish a Regional Innovation Hub on Disaster Risk Reduction, focusing on early warning technologies, satellite data utilization, and risk-informed infrastructure planning,” the statement said.
The meeting was attended by delegations from ECO member states including Pakistan, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Representatives of regional and international organizations and development partners were also in attendance.
Discussions focused on enhancing regional coordination, harmonizing disaster risk reduction frameworks, and strengthening collective preparedness against transboundary and climate-induced hazards impacting the ECO region, the PID said.
ECO members states such as Pakistan, Türkiye, Afghanistan and others have faced natural calamities such as floods and earthquakes in recent years that have killed tens of thousands of people.
Heavy rains triggered catastrophic floods in Pakistan in 2022 and 2025 that killed thousands of people and caused damages to critical infrastructure, inflicting losses worth billions of dollars.
Islamabad has since then called on regional countries to join hands to cooperate to avert future climate disasters and promote early warning systems to avoid calamities in future.
