The food minister said although he did not consider sugar as an essential food item, the country will gain self sufficiency in sugar from next season. — File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday admitted its failure in arresting rising food prices saying it is beyond its control.

Before the wheat harvesting season expected to begin in late March, the government has started exporting wheat from the existing stock and is expected to export less than two million tons of the commodity, he said.

When his attention was drawn towards rising food inflation, the federal minister said that the government cannot control market price mechanism since domestic rates cannot be de-linked from the international price. However, Mr Gondal said that the government was subsidising prices of essential food commodities through the network of utility stores.

Pakistan has surplus wheat in its stock as on average the country produces around 24 million tons of wheat each year, therefore, no shortages are feared. The government has set a target to produce a record 25 million tons of wheat in 2011, but this may not materialise because recent floods damaged irrigation infrastructure.

The food minister said although he did not consider sugar as an essential food item, the country will gain self sufficiency in sugar from next season. Currently, the production and consumption are at the same level of 4.2 million tons.

About the recent sugar crisis, he said the government was able to bring down the price of sugar from Rs100-110 per kg to Rs68-71, but it was investigating against those who were responsible for the 'artificial shortage'.

Pakistan produced 3.5 million tons of potato this year against the domestic requirement of 1.5 million tons. Similarly, the production of tomato reached 5.5 million tons against the demand of 3.5 million tons.

Pakistan is rich in fresh milk production, which has risen to around 44 million tons whereas the consumption is 35 million tons. Likewise, the production of cereals was also satisfactory.

In the meantime, the committee set up by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet met here on Thursday and decided that the federal government will procure 6.5 million tons of wheat this year, ensuring that farmers will get the minimum support price of Rs950 per 40kg for their crop.

The committee, which met under the chairmanship of the food and agriculture minister, decided that Punjab will procure 3.5 million tons, Sindh 1.3 million tons, Passco 1.3 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 0.4 million tons while Balochistan will procure 70,000 tons of wheat.

The meeting decided that there will be no ban on the export of wheat during procurement season. A total of one million tons of strategic reserves will be maintained in the private sector. Storage capacity of 1.3 million tons to be completed in Sindh and Punjab before the harvest of wheat this year”, added Mr Gondal.

The meeting was informed that a total production of 23 million tons is expected this year with Sindh producing 3.7 million tons and Punjab 16.5 million tons of wheat this year.

Meanwhile, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a report that the prices of wheat and wheat flour have remained stable in Pakistan during the last two months of 2010, after their increase in September and October.