LAHORE – The Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan has announced to acknowledge the contribution of international buyers of Pakistani rice by giving them awards with a view to promote rice exports.
This was stated by REAP Chairman Samee Ullah Naeem while addressing a press conference here on Thursday. He hoped that the awards, named as ‘International Buyers Recognition Trophy 2018’ will provide a chance to the buyers to interact with Pakistani government departments so as to have a feel that they are in safe hands while interacting with the Pakistani rice sellers. He said such an award would also promote soft image of the country besides winning the loyalty and trust of the international buyers .
REAP chairman said that the total awards would be 30 which would be distributed on the basis of maximum import by any region and import on the basis of quantity.
He said that services of 30 top international buyers will be acknowledged at an event to be held on February 20, 2018 in Dubai, (third day of Gulf food: the biggest international annual food exhibition). Federal Minister for Commerce Pervaiz Malik will be the chief guest of this occasion which will be participated by around 100 international buyers , ambassadors, representatives of different departments of Gulf States, representatives of different government departments including TDAP, federal ministry for food security, provincial agriculture department and members of the REAP .
We are planning to make it a regular annual feature which will eventually be turned in to a ‘Rice Conference’ providing a platform not only to acknowledgethe buyers but also to discuss the future trends and new technologies in ricesector, Samee added. Samee said, “We would be discussing the rice issues and a documentary would also be shown to the participants showing that Pakistan is the original house of Basmati; our agronomic practices are traditional and close to organic, ratio of using pesticides is low and Pakistani growers comply Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary practices thus product is healthy and safe for human consumption.
He claimed that closest competitor of Pakistan had betrayed from the original Basmati while the original Basmati Rice 370 was found in 1923 in District Hafizabad area of Pakistan.