Rice growers and traders staged protest demonstrations throughout the rice-growing belt of the province against the steep decline in price structure of coarse rice Irri-6.
The growers alleged that the cartel of rice exporters manipulated decline in rice price by Rs 1,000 as compared to last year by quoting price of Irri-6 at Rs 12,000 per tonne that too less than 15 days differ payment.
They maintained that at a time when the price of Irri-6 quoted in international market at 230 to 250 dollars and the export prospects of Pakistan's rice has increased manifold as no less than 50 countries of Europe, Middle East and Far East are importing from surplus rice growing countries, the decline in price has no justification.
A delegation of rice growers recently called upon federal minister for food and agriculture demanding to constitute a regulatory body to maintain vigilance against the exploitation of rice growers and traders by rice exporter's cartel. The also demanded that Passco procurement centres should be establish in rice growing areas to regulate the price structure and brought an end to exploitation of rice exporter cartel.
Meanwhile, the statistic released by the Sindh agriculture extension indicates that the rice production in the province has recorded an increase of 12.62 percent compared to last year and the final estimate of the production was computed at 16.889 million tonnes.
According to sources close to Minfal the Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Sirdar Sikander Hayat Bosan has convened a meeting of growers and exporters representative at Karachi on December 2 to resolve the problem and to bring an end to the protest demonstration of rice growers and traders gaining momentum all over the province.