Pakistan is likely to remove a minimum export price of 750 dollars per tonne imposed on non-basmati rice to boost overseas sales after forecasts of a bumper harvest, a top industry official said on Monday. "We are expecting the minimum export price on Irri-6 to be removed," said Vice-Chairman of Pakistan Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) Abdul Baseer.
"We are hopeful that a notification will come within this week," he opined. Pakistan, the world's fifth-largest rice exporter, had imposed minimum export price to increase earnings and withhold some cargoes destined abroad in order to build a domestic strategic reserve.
Pakistani exporters are likely to offer Irri-6, a non-basmati variety, at 400-450 dollars per tonne free on board at Karachi port after the minimum export price was removed, he said. The nation is expected to sell up to 250,000 tonnes of rice by end-October as the exporters were aggressively positioning themselves.
"As far as India remains closed for the coming three to four months, Pakistan is going to go very fast in its exports," Baseer told Reuters on phone from Karachi. "In September and October, we hope to ship about a quarter million tonnes, everybody has a lot of money and they are just waiting," he said. The official estimated Pakistan's 2008 rice output to rise 27 percent to seven million tonnes in 2008 from 5.5 million tonnes a year ago.
Pakistan's rice exports jumped 50 percent to 3.2 million tonnes in the first half of 2008 as one of its main competitors, India, imposed curbs on the overseas sale of the grain.
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