Rice exporters have urged the Iranian Consulate General at Lahore to take steps for reducing the time required for processing of visa applications and attestation of documents to curtail the time for rice export shipment to Iran. Exporters said that Iran is one of the emerging markets for Pakistani Basmati rice and lengthy procedures are causing a dent to the efforts of enhancing bilateral trade between the two neighboring countries.
They said that trade ties between Iran and Pakistan are increasing at a significant pace. Iranian consumes a lot of rice where average per capita consumption of rice is 46 kilogram per annum. They are also very fond of Pakistan Super Basmati rice because of its taste, aroma, length and cooking ability, said these exporters while talking to Business Recorder here on Thursday.
They claimed that at present visa processing and attestation of documents for GMP certification are taking about 10 days on average. They said that in the past it had been a tradition at the Iranian Consulate General Lahore that visa requests were processed in single day.
Now they said that the process was getting lengthy and specially attestation of documents for GMP certification. 'We have to get the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certificate from Iranian Consulate General in Lahore and then have to dispatch it to Iran for further processing so as to be able to ship our rice consignments, thus if it gets delayed it may result in loosing this important and emerging market,' these exporters claimed.
It may be mentioned here that the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) is a system for ensuring that products are consistently produced and controlled according to quality standards. It is designed to minimize the risks involved in any pharmaceutical production that cannot be eliminated through testing the final product.
They said that the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) had also asked for carrying out the past practice of the same day visa and document attestation processing in past in a letter to the Consulate General. They appealed to the Iranian Consulate General to take necessary steps for immediate processing of visa applications and documents attestation to save the rice exporters from unnecessary embarrassment.