Lahore: Food Safety and Consumer Protection Secretary Dr Kiran Khurshid has said that on the basis of a public-private partnership, strategic wheat reserves of 2.5 million metric tons will be maintained.
According to a handout issued here on Thursday she said that purchase price of the strategic wheat reserves would be fixed at the import parity price, i.e., Rs 3,500 per 40 kilograms.
She that wheat procurement would be carried out directly from the farmer’s farmhouse or doorstep and all wheat-related payments and records would be digitized.
Through end-to-end digital monitoring of the entire process, an operational system would be established to ensure transparency in wheat quality, quantity and payments to farmers.
Dr Kiran Khurshid further said that private-sector aggregators would be allocated districts after pre-qualification and the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
These aggregators would be selected through competitive bidding based on profit margins and financing costs, with preference given at the pre-qualification stage to those offering lower profit margins and lower financing costs, she added.
She stated that pre-qualified private-sector aggregators would be responsible for arranging all primary financing, and they would be paid a guaranteed profit (with an upper limit ranging from 10% to 16%).
She further said that aggregators would be provided a guaranteed profit (up to an upper limit of 10% to 16% during the supply months) and financing (up to an upper limit of KIBOR + 1% on 70% of the primary financing).
She said, “These payments will be made during the supply months (September to March) at the time the reserves are utilized.”