Russian wheats arrival delayed

KARACHI: The arrival of Russian wheat has been delayed and according to flour millers it will now land in the second week of August instead of last week of this month.
Before the arrival of the first imported shipment, local wheat price in the open market saw a slight decline of Rs25 per 100 kg bag to Rs3,475 from Rs3,500 per 100 kg bag.The first shipment has been booked by some flour millers.
Chairman Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), Sindh Zone, Chaudhry Ansar Jawed said that instead of 25,000 tonnes, the first shipment of Russian wheat is actually 32,000 tonnes.

He said that wheat arrival was delayed as the ship carrying the commodity also has to unload some shipments in Oman first.

The PFMA chief said that wheat booked by flour millers would hopefully arrive between August 10-15 and a total wheat arrival is estimated between 250,000-300,000 tons in the next three to four months.

He said that the falling rate of wheat in Russia would prove helpful in offsetting the impact of devaluation of rupee against the dollar. The landed price of imported wheat is Rs32-32.50 per kg and import is being made at price of $278-289 per ton including freight charges. Wheat is being imported from Russian and Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, the government has not announced any cut in five per cent in withholding tax (WHT) on import of wheat despite the fact that Minister for National Food and Security Sikandar Hayat Bosan in a meeting with flour millers in last week of June had hinted reduction in WHT. The government had hinted reduction in WHT when the international market was high.

As the wheat price declined in open market by Rs25 per 100 kg bag, the flour millers had not passed decline in wheat rates to the end users in shape of wheat flour price.

The millers at the start of Ramazan had raised the price of flour no.2.5 to Rs41 per kg from Rs38.50 per kg followed by increase in price of fine and super fine flour to Rs42 from Rs41, linking the price surge to rising wheat price in open market.

In the entire July-June 2012-2013 period wheat imports were recorded only in May 2013 worth $4.8 million (21,454 tons) while no imports were made during 2011-2012. The May import did not belong to any private party or flour millers as it was imported by a foreign organisation for Afghanistan.

In contrast, wheat exports remained low to 200,044 tonnes fetching $63 million in 2012-2013 as compared to 413,673 tonnes worth $127 million, figures compiled by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics revealed.