Damascus, SANA – The Cabinet held on Wednesday a special session to discuss marketing of wheat and transportation of cotton, focusing particularly on finding new mechanisms to increase the rate of buying crops from farmers given the importance of this strategic crop for enhancing food security.
Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi called for employing all necessary efforts to increase marketing operations and work around the clock and do everything possible to overcome every obstacle standing in the way.
The Cabinet was briefed on new mechanisms for transporting and marketing wheat from the northeastern Hasaka province and the eastern region, proposed by the Internal Trade and Consumer Protection Minister Hassan Safiyeh, and approved these mechanisms.
The Cabinet also approved mechanisms of transporting cotton stockpiles from Hasaka for Spinning Company to companies in Damascus and the coastal and central regions, according to a proposal put forth by the Ministry of Industry.
In its session on May 5th, the Cabinet set “encouraging” prices for purchasing wheat and barley from farmers at SYP 61 per one kilogram of wheat and SYP 48 per one kilogram of barley.
Earlier this month, the Prime Minister asked the the Ministry of Finance to allocate SYP 80 billion to buy this season’s wheat production.
In the same context, the Cabinet discussed a draft law to extend Law no. 11 for 2014 on scheduling loans granted by the Agricultural Cooperative Bank for agricultural purposes on condition of paying a value of 5 percent of the debt, and the necessary measures were taken to complete issuing the new law.
Qabas / H. Said