Wheat exports may double target

Pakistan, Asia's third-largest wheat grower, may export as much as 4 million tonnes this year, double a target set by the government, as production exceeds local demand, a farmers' group said. "If the weather remains good, our exports will flourish," Ebrahim Mughal, chairman of Agri Forum Pakistan, a farmers' welfare group, said in a phone interview yesterday. Exporters have shipped 1.1 million tonnes of wheat since the government lifted a three-year ban in December, he said. Exports from Pakistan may cool a 67 per cent rally in wheat prices in the past year, fuelling global food costs that the United Nations estimates advanced to a record in February. Wheat rallied after drought slashed harvests in Russia while floods eroded supplies from Canada and Australia.