The government will provide its support to all stakeholders of rice trade including exporters, millers and growers to get more production and to increase country''s rice exports. This was stated by Federal Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim at a meeting with the members of Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) here on Sunday.
The minister announced to form a committee of commerce ministry officials and Reap members to discuss all the issues being faced by the rice traders in the country. The minister said that the first meeting of the committee should be held in the beginning of February so that immediate step could be taken in the light of the recommendations of the committee. "We want to solve all the rice trade issues immediately to avoid any inconvenience in rice exports", he said.
The minister said that the country is facing financial crunch and this is the time to work together to earn more foreign exchange by increasing exports.
The minister said that the industry is suffering due to load shedding, however, he was optimistic to achieve export target this fiscal year. He said that Pakistan is also affected by the recent global recession. On the other hand, the power crisis affected the industry negatively in the country and their production has declined, he said.
He said that the present government has taken many steps to set up new power generation plants, however, it takes time and the situation will be improved in near future. He said that the former government did not set up a single power generation plant during its tenure.
He assured the rice exporters that the government and ministry of commerce will provide all necessary facilities and assistance to them to increase the rice exports and to earn more foreign exchange for the country. He pointed out that the report of enquiry committee regarding buying of rice on high prices will be submitted to the ministry on Monday. "We will be able to take steps once the inquiry report is submitted", he said and added that the government will protect the interests of all stakeholders.
The minister said that the ministry would hold its meetings with Reap members on monthly basis. "We want to make a realistic policy with the consultation of all stake holders to achieve better results to improve country''s economy", he said. Regarding the issue of Rice Research Institutes, the minister said that Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and Commerce Ministry are two sides of the same coin and both the ministries will discuss to make these institutes more active. He admitted that highly qualified experts to give better results should run the research institutes.
He said that the government would provide all necessary support and assistance to the rice exporters to recapture the potential markets of this commodity. In this regard, he said, that he would consult foreign ministry and other relevant offices seeking their help to increase country''s exports. The minister said that there is a difficult time as there is a financial crunch globally. "Our economy is also affected by the recent global recession, so we all have to work together to address the challenges", he added.
Earlier, Abdul Rahim Janoo, Chairman Reap briefed the minister about the rice trade and the main issues being faced by the rice trade. He said that a declining trend in the rice prices is being witnessed in the international markets, as there is a bumper crop in most of the countries in the world this year. "Our big markets including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand have sufficient rice this year and do not need to import rice from Pakistan due to their bumper crops", he said. On the other hand, the rice prices in the local market have increased tremendously due to intervention of government institutions including TCP and Passco and Pakistani rice is not able to compete in the international markets due to high prices.
He pointed out that the private sector has played a historic role to increase rice exports from $300 million in 1989 to $2.2 billion last fiscal year. The private sector, with long efforts and its investment of billions of dollars has established its own brands of rice in the international markets. The private sector has exported rice worth $1.18 billion in the first six months of current fiscal year and there was no difficulty to achieve $2.3 billion target of rice exports this year. Pakistan had become the third biggest rice exporting country in the world last year. However, the intervention of government institutions created many problems that can affect the country''s rice exports in future.
He told the minister that there are 11,060 rice mills and 180 most modern rice processing plants in the country. "We are able to export best quality rice and can compete any country in the international market", he added. He suggested that the country''s rice research institutes should be managed by experts, able to develop good quality seeds to increase yield of this commodity.
He also offered the minister that Reap is ready to send some 25 top growers abroad to learn how to use the modern technology to get more yield. He suggested that this project should be started from Sindh. Many other leading rice exporters including Rafiq Sulaiman, Aziz Ghaffar and others also gave their suggestions to solve all the issues.
They opposed the intervention of government institutions in the rice trade and suggested giving free hand to private sector so that they could achieve $2.3 billion rice export target. They said that the TCP does not have sufficient storage capacity for rice. After the arrival of new crop of wheat there would be more problems for TCP to store rice in proper manner. They expressed their fear that a huge quantity of rice could be destroyed. They suggested that the ministry should direct the TCP to sell out all rice stock in the open market immediately.
They said that the government should give a sufficient amount to rice exporters from export development fund for research. They were of the view that the minimum support price for rice was not announced timely. This announcement was made at the time when almost all the crop had been sold out and the growers once again were deprived the benefits of the scheme. According to them the middlemen were getting all the benefits of this scheme.