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| Afghanistan |
| Refugees may overwhelm Pak wheat reserves |
| 2001-09-25 |
Pakistan's wheat reserves may come under severe pressure in the near future if the inflow of Afghan refugees continues to grow in the coming weeks in the wake of possible US attacks on Afghanistan, Agriculture Ministry officials warned. The officials said that usually Pakistan provides 0.6 million tons of wheat to Afghanistan in normal conditions every year. Last year due to local bumper crop, the government had tried to sell the wheat to Afghanistan through private parties and two separate deals of 2 million tons were also signed with the private parties. But the Taliban regime, receiving wheat from illegal channels, had refused to allow them to sell the commodity there at the market rate. As a result, the deal could not materialize and the contracts were cancelled by the contractors themselves fearing financial losses. So in real terms the Taliban have no wheat stock to meet the demand of their population which is now coming to Pakistan in search of both safety and food. Pakistan also has limited wheat stocks which are only sufficient to meet its own food requirements that have now risen up to 21 million tons including one million tons of strategic reserves for 2001, against 19-20 million tons of last year, an agriculture ministry official confirmed. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |