SECP chief proposes establishing national agri spot market

SECP Chairman Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu has proposed a national agricultural spot market that would bring farmers, warehouses, banks and buyers onto one digital trading platform, according to Business Recorder. He argued it could help growers obtain better prices, cut post-harvest losses and widen their access to finance. He made the remarks at a Pakistan Institute of Development Economics conference titled Mission 100 Billion Dollars.

The scheme would depend on uniform quality grades, open bidding and electronic warehouse receipts, which farmers could use to borrow from banks against stored produce. Growers would gain room to hold crops after harvest rather than sell at once, while traders and commission agents would be registered and keep electronic logs of deals and inventories. Provinces would continue to oversee farm markets, with the SECP supplying the digital backbone.

Sidhu said agriculture accounts for 23.44 percent of GDP and that crop output is valued at roughly Rs8.8 trillion. Citing post-harvest loss estimates of 20 to 40 percent, he put each percentage point of losses at about Rs88 billion. Approved warehouses offer roughly 326,000 metric tonnes of space, far short of the 55.7 million metric tonnes of dry produce grown each year.