The Union of Small & Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has urged government not to ban exports of wheat all of a sudden as the SME wheat exporters will suffer huge losses and irreparable loss will be caused to their reputation.
The wheat exporters were shocked on the week end to find that their consignments were not allowed to load as consequent upon the ban on export by the government it was ordered that all consignments of wheat meant for export were not to be allowed for loading except those whose loading was allowed and received by the terminal operators but not yet allowed on vessel were put on hold.
Zulfikar Thaver President Unisame has appealed to the authorities to reconsider their decision and understand business principles because in this harsh manner a ban on an item allowed for exports and suddenly banned could damage the exporters reputation abroad and also cause huge expenses and losses even claims coming from the importers who will not accept the reasons for this behaviour of a contract terminated over night.
He requested the government to allow exports of those consignments which had entered the port and for which shipping bill had been filed or goods declaration submitted as removal from the port area would cause substantial loss to the shippers.
He called upon Hamid Gharib the President of the Wheat Exporters Association of Pakistan (WEAP) to urgently take up the matter with the federal commerce minister Humayun Akhtar and convince him that this practise of banning an item abruptly should be discontinued.
Wheat exporters were lamenting that the government should consider all pros and cons before allowing or disallowing and if it was feared that exports were not favourable it should not have been allowed in the first place.
It is believed that wheat exports had picked up and India started buying in huge quantities which exhausted the quota and it was apprehended that India needed about 3 million tonnes and would have created a shortage here by buying our surplus.
Some exporters however pointed out that the government had given the mechanism before hand and the quota was fixed at 50,000 tonnes for the private sector but others pointed out that since our systems are poor in imparting the correct figures of quota utilisation on a day to day basis how would an exporter know the balance quota available for shipment and since there was a bumper crop it was expected that the quota would be increased.
Unisame experts have requested for an urgent enquiry to be conducted to determine the real reasons for this awkward situation causing hardship and losses to genuine SME exporters who work on a system of contract and do not indulge in hoarding or speculation.
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