December 19, 2006

Pakistan to meet wheat output target

Pakistan, the world's sixth-largest consumer of wheat, expects to meet its wheat production target as rainfall in the main-growing areas encouraged farmers to boost planting, a government official said.

Pakistan's government in October forecast wheat output to rise 3.7 percent to 22.5 million tonnes in 2007, exceeding demand by 1 million tonnes and helping the country export the grain for the first time in four years. The country has wheat reserves of 2 million tonnes.

Pakistan, which last shipped wheat overseas in 2003, banned exports of the grain in 2004 after output fell that year because of a drought. The nation spent US$287 million to buy 1.4 million tonnes of wheat from Australia, Canada and other suppliers.

Provided the country gets adequate rains in January and February, the output might be more than the forecast, said Shakeel Ahmed Khan, wheat commissioner at the farm ministry.

Pakistan's southern Sindh and central Punjab provinces that together grow 90 percent of the nation's wheat, received rains in the first week of December, said Khan. Farmers plant the crop in November and December and harvest it from April to June.

In September, Pakistan's government increased the price at which farmers sell the crop in a bid to encourage production

Agriculture accounts for about a quarter of Pakistan's US$129-billion economy.