ECC bans onion export, sets wheat procurement target at 8.25 mln tonnes in Pakistan.
The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, presided over by Finance Adviser, which stopped short of banning export of chillies and sounded a warning to the market by announcing that 500,000 tonnes of wheat could be imported in case of any shortage during the year. The ECC also decided that in case of release of wheat stocks from the federal government maintained by Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) to the provinces, which would be responsible for bearing the burden of incidentals. In this regard, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration is reported to have already agreed to pay incidental charges for 100,000 tonnes of wheat it had received from Passco in recent months.