ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has decided that the Russian side may be offered import of wheat at $390 MT, otherwise, their offer of US$ 399.50 MT may be cancelled.

The ECC meeting presided over by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail was submitted a summary by the Ministry of National Food Security on the recommendations of the Ministry of Commerce submitted the price offered by M/s Prodintorg, a state-owned company of Government of Russia, at US$ 399.50 MT for supply 120,000 MT +/- 5% MOLSO of milling wheat through G2G arrangements for the consideration of the ECC of the Cabinet.

The ECC was informed that in compliance with the decision of the Federal Cabinet by ECC on 28-05-2022 for the import of three million metric tons of wheat, TCP initiated the process of import of wheat from Russian Government on G2G basis. In this context, MOU was signed between Russian SOE and TCP on 08-06-2022. Initially, the government of Russia offered wheat price US$ 410 MT. A committee was constituted by the Prime Minister’s Office under Tariq Fatemi, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs to negotiate with the Russian Embassy on the price issue of imported wheat. Meanwhile, Russian delegation met with the Minister for Commerce and offered a reduced price of wheat @ US$ 405MT. Later on, the price was further reduced to US$ 400 MT.