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Millers dispute exporters' plea for Indian rice
KARACHI, March 25: Rice millers and exporters have
entangled themselves in the issue of available
local stocks and exportable surplus of Irri-6 at a
time when India has agreed to allow Pakistani
exporters to lift 0.5 million tons rice for
re-export.
A rice delegation led by former chairman of the
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP),
Abdul Rahim Janoo during a recent visit to India
managed to convince their counterparts to allow
Pakistani exporters to lift 0.5 million tons of
PR-103 and Irri-9 (Indian version of Irri-6) for
re-export in the world market.
However, this idea received a lot of criticism and
opposition from the rice millers who suddenly came
out with figures of huge unsold stocks of Irri-6.
According to reports, Rice Millers Association (Sindh-Balochistan)
president Gaddha Hussain Mehesar claimed that over
0.7 million tons of Irri-6 was available in the
country, therefore, there was no need to lift rice
from India.
However, the rice exporters have claimed that
prior to their visit to India Irri-6 was not
available in the local market and due to acute
shortage prices of the produce skyrocketed from
Rs9 per kg to Rs13.50-14 per kg.
After the news that India has agreed to allow
Pakistani exporters to lift around 0.5 million
tons, the millers disclosed that enough stocks of
Irri-6 are available for export and there was no
need to lift Indian rice. They said that this
would directly damage the interest of growers.
Similarly, the prices of Irri-6 also reeled back
in the local market that enabled exporters to
quote lower C&F prices at $262 per ton as against
previous rate of $280 per ton.
The exporters say speculators and investors had
hoarded a huge quantity of the produce and have
plenty of finance capital at their disposal, but
they suddenly felt insecure after the news that
Pakistani exporters are buying Indian rice.
Abdul Rahim Janoo told Dawn that so far only
425,000 tons of Irri-6 had been exported against
the target of around l.2 million tons. He said
that had the stock were available exporters would
by now have exported around 0.7 million tons.
In total the country exported around two million
tons of rice, including 0.8 million tons basmati
and 1.2 million tons Irri-6. Mr Janoo said that
Indian rice would never enter Pakistani ports
except that "our exporters will make direct deals
with importers and shipments will be made from
India". He said this practice was not new,
Pakistani exporters had been doing this trade for
the last couple of years.
However, he said now this would be done legally
through back-to-back L/Cs that would also benefit
Pakistan and earn foreign exchange. Responding to
a question, Mr Janoo said: "I assure that our
exporters will first export Pakistani rice and
only then take the India rice for world trading."
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Union of Small and
Medium Enterprises (Unisame) also supported rice
exporters and urged the government to look into
the matter in the national interest.
Unisame convener Zulfikar Thaver said that the
world was becoming a global village and the
international trend on internet is catching on,
therefore, there was no harm if Pakistani
exporters sell goods to their buyers from
worldwide sources. They have to look at it from a
broader perspective and not to be orthodox or
restricted.
"The feud over this issue is useless and I would
suggest that both the millers and exporters should
join hands to collect correct figures of stocks as
well as crop size or ask the ministry of
agriculture to furnish correct figures of all the
produces so that proper marketing could be carried
out,
" Mr Thaver added.
The DAWN |
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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