RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA-Punjab) has urged the government to announce an Rs 50 billion package for exporters of wheat and wheat products which will ultimately revive the ailing flour milling industry.

This package will help dispose of surplus wheat stocks lying available in the country for last few years and their sale in the international market will fetch precious foreign exchange to the country, they added.

Talking to journalists here on Wednesday, PFMA-Punjab Chairman Riaz Ullah Khan, Group Leader Asim Raza Ahmad and others said that the government had fixed the support price of wheat at Rs 1300 per 40 kilograms.

They said that price of the local wheat at this rate comes to US $ 320 per tons which is very higher than the

prices of wheat from other countries.

The government should announce a package for flour milling industry to make local wheat and wheat products competitive in the international market.

Flour millers welcomed the export package of Rs 180 billion to the industry especially textile sector but the government should not ignore flour milling industry too.

They claimed that flour milling industry had the capacity to earn more foreign exchange than textile for the country.

The PFMA leaders reiterated their demand of announcing an export package of Rs 50 billion for the flour milling industry as it would also encourage the

growers to earn more and disposal of available surplus stocks of hundreds of thousand tons.