Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) arranged an awareness workshop for its members here on Wednesday to discuss the challenges and issues being faced by the rice exporters to European and American markets and importance of meeting the specifications of these markets. Dr Werner Nader of Eurofins Global Control GmbH was the guest speaker of the seminar who delivered his lecture titled 'Current topics of Basmati Rice-EU market, food safety and authenticity' to a large number of rice exporters.
The event was sponsored by the former REAP Vice Chairman Samiullah Naeem who is currently leading the Gujranwala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) as President. Dr Werner said that Pakistan has a huge potential for exports of rice and other agricultural commodities but its exporters should pay attention towards meeting the specifications of their importers. He said that now the rice exports to European countries was picking up but the exporters should pay attention towards issues like aflatoxins, pesticide residue and also new regulations being made by these markets. However, he said that complaints of aflatoxins in rice consignments from Pakistan had come down to almost negligible level and the rice industry players should handle other issues also like they did to control this issue.
He said that Eurofins, which provides testing facilities and issue authenticity certificates accepted by EU and US markets, was also actively extending services to exporters through an office in Lahore. Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) Chairman Chaudhry Muhammad Shafique speaking on this occasion congratulated the team which arranged a capacity building workshop for the members of the Association. He said that such awareness creating events help the members to grow more and earn for the country. Those who attended the workshop included Chaudhry Samiullah Naeem, Taufiq Umer, Javed Islam Agha, Chaudhry Masood, Pir Nazim Hussain Shah and others.
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