Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has requested the Qatar government to issue a tender by its Central Tender Committee (CTC) for buying of Pakistani Super Basmati rice. 'Qatar government buy 50,000 tons of rice every year but Pakistan is not included in the list of rice sellers,' said REAP Chairman Samee Ullah Naeem while talking to Business Recorder here on Friday. Samee said that Pakistan can easily provide 25-30,000 tons of rice to Qatar every year.
Samee said that he raised the issue with the Ambassador of Qatar to Pakistan Excellency Saqr bin Mubarak Al-Mansouri during an Iftaar reception arranged by the Qatar ambassador in honour of Pakistani businessmen the other day. Samee along with Pir Nazim Hussain Shah, Malik Muhammad Jahangir, Chaudhry Muhammad Shafiq, Ali Hussam, Kashif ur Rehman and others discussed issues of bilateral trade with special reference to rice in the meeting.
He requested the ambassador for issuing a CTC tender for Pakistani Basmati Rice and said that Pakistan is not being included in this render for the last five years. Qatar's ambassador to Pakistan assured the delegation of the rice exporters to make all out efforts for opening up of CTC tender for Pakistan. He also announced to lead a delegation of Pakistani rice exporters to Qatar in near future to resolve the issue.