A bulk carrier m.v. 'Ellivitia', carrying 51,200 metric tonnes of Australian wheat started discharging the food grain at Port Qasim here on Thursday. Chairman Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) Syed Masood Alam Rizvi said that this is the first of five vessels, which will bring 250,000 tonnes of Australian wheat to Pakistan. He said TCP through a tender in December 2004, had awarded contracts for the supply of 400,000 tonnes of wheat, 250,000 tonnes from Australia and 150,000 tonnes from Canada.

The economic coordination committee (ECC) of the cabinet had asked TCP to import 500,000 tonnes of wheat to meet domestic shortage, he added.

Rizvi said TCP had made special arrangements to ensure a swift import of wheat to avoid any shortage. According to him about 150,000 tonnes of wheat will arrive by end of February 2005, 200,000 tonnes in March 2005 and 50,000 tonnes in the first week of April 2005.

He said from the current arrival of 51,200 tonnes, Sindh would get 15,000 tonnes of wheat while Punjab 30,200 and NWFP 5,000 tonnes under the quota allocation.

Two ships m.v. 'Great Ambition' and m.v. 'Gertrud Salamon' carrying 50,000 tonnes of Australian wheat each was expected to berth at Port Qasim on February 19 and 24, 2005 respectively.

Rizvi said one of the three ships carrying 50,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat will berth at Port Qasim next week while remaining two with 50,000 tonnes each are expected to arrive before March 15, 2005.

One more vessel m.v. 'New Wind' carrying 40,000 tonnes of Russian wheat is expected to berth at the port on February 26, 2005. This wheat is a part of earlier tenders, under which TCP imported 927,000 tonnes of wheat in the year 2004. With the arrival of Russian wheat, the total imported quantity of previous transactions will be 967,000 tonnes of wheat.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2005