'Rice exports value surge by 47.09 percent over last year'

Country's rice exports narrowly missed $1 billion mark in 2004-2005 as the total export value was estimated at a record $933.223 million during July-2004 to June-2005. According to the provisional data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, rice exports value surged by 47.09 percent over last year, of which exports of coarse rice surged by 108 percent and Basmati by 16.44 percent.
Pakistan exported more than 2.745 million tons during 2004-2005, showing a rise of 50 percent in quantity over last year, of which coarse rice, including IRRI-6, jumped by 81.20 percent to 1.823 tons and Basmati by 13 percent to 921,694 tons.
Former chairman Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) Rahim Janoo said, "this is the highest ever value in the country's rice export history and they missed the dream figure of $1 billion by about $66 million this year."
However, he hoped that rice exports would easily cross $1 billion mark during the current fiscal year of 2005-2006 as chances have brightened for growth in rice export after duty-free access in Sri Lanka and China.
Giving reasons for surge in rice export value this year, Janoo said it was the combination of value addition and new markets. In addition, they also regained the lost shares in some of the existing market, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, which is the largest buyer of Basmati rice, he added.
He pointed out that due to crop failure in India, Pakistan was able to get opportunities in these markets.
He made it clear that rice exporters had worked hard on improving their quality and increasing value addition by at least 22 percent this year.
Janoo said this year Pakistan made in-roads into Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Yemen and Mauritius.
Referring to the duty-free access in Chinese market this month, he said Pakistan will be able to export 70,000 to 80,000 tons of Basmati rice worth about $50 million this year.
"We will also focus Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, South Africa and Somalia this year to market par boiled rice," he noted.
Janoo urged the government to allow duty-free import of rice processing machinery to enable exporters to go for more value addition. Similarly, the government should also allow import of processing machinery for white rice from India.
Presently, only par boiled rice-processing machinery is allowed, he added.
He pointed out that eight par boiled rice plants imported from India have been set up while 15 were in process of installation.