31-07-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
FY24: Wheat import caused massive loss
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan suffered a staggering loss of over Rs 300 billion owing to the import of 3.59 million metric tons of wheat during the financial year 2023–24, despite having ample domestic stocks.
The was revealed in the Audit Report 2024-25, highlighting it as one of the most critical financial failures of the federal government in the reviewed period.
According to the report, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research went ahead with the wheat import at a time when 4.12 million metric tons of locally produced wheat was already available in public sector storage facilities. This decision led to an oversupply in the domestic market, significantly reducing wheat prices and placing immense financial strain on local farmers who were already struggling to sell their harvest.
'No wheat import this year owing to sufficient stock'
The audit strongly criticized the federal authorities for ignoring repeated warnings from provincial governments, especially Punjab and Sindh, which had publicly declared that their procurement targets were met and storage facilities were full.
The report revealed that despite these alerts, the government pressed ahead with the import, leading to logistical bottlenecks, storage issues, and economic distortion in the agricultural market.
The report further highlighted the lack of consultation with key stakeholders, such as the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO), and a glaring absence of real-time coordination between federal and provincial departments. These oversights contributed to the government's failure to accurately assess national stock levels, which, in turn, resulted in unnecessary import expenditures, distressed selling of surplus stock, and additional costs for storage and subsidies. The cumulative financial impact of these miscalculations was conservatively estimated at Rs 310 billion.
The audit report recommended that the Ministry of National Food Security undertake an urgent and comprehensive review of the national wheat procurement and import policy. Future decisions, the report advises, must be informed by reliable, real-time stock data from all provinces. To avoid repetition of such costly blunders, it is essential to develop a centralized digital dashboard that allows visibility of grain procurement, stockpiles, and storage capacity across federal and provincial lines.
Moreover, mandatory consultation with all relevant stakeholders—including PASSCO, provincial food departments, and the Ministry of Commerce—must be institutionalized before any import decision is finalized.
In addition to administrative reforms, the audit report also urges the government to fix accountability for this lapse. It calls for a thorough investigation into the decision-making process, identifying the individuals or entities responsible for bypassing standard protocols and ignoring provincial feedback.
The report warns that without institutional reforms and accountability, similar incidents may continue to drain public resources and destabilize critical sectors like agriculture. As of now, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has not issued any formal response to the audit findings.
However, public outcry is mounting, especially among farmer groups who argue that the government's actions devalued their produce and pushed many into financial distress during the wheat harvesting season.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
