Pakistan has decided to import wheat from Russia to avert a looming food security crisis and manage inflation.
The decision to import 300,000 tonnes of wheat was taken by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Monday. It was the first state-level import deal with Moscow in the since 2020.
The Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) had warned authorities against insufficient wheat stocks.
Production of wheat in Pakistan declined by 3.9 per cent this year due to a shortfall in irrigation water and back-to-back heatwaves weeks ahead of harvest time.
Months later, PASSCO’s wheat stocks were damaged by floods.
A shortfall in wheat production in the past has led to political uncertainty and the drainage of foreign reserves in Pakistan.
