Bangladesh News

Friday
Sep 05th
Home arrow News arrow Business News arrow Pakistan to export 3m tons of rice
Pakistan to export 3m tons of rice PDF Print E-mail
Saturday, 19 April 2008

The Pakistan government is planning to export three million metric tons of surplus rice during 2007-08, which would earn $1.8 billion foreign exchange.

"The total exportable surplus from the 2007-08 rice crop is estimated at three million tons," said Agriculture Development Commissioner Qadir Bux Baloch while talking to APP here on Wednesday, reports agencies.

Of the three million tons of exportable rice, one million tons of Basmati alone would fetch $1 billion and another $0.8 billion would be earned from other rice varieties, he said. Baloch said that rice was cultivated on about 2.5 million hectares, with a production of 5.5 million tons.

He further stated that Pakistan produces about 2.5 million tons of world class aromatic basmati rice, and due to its superior quality, Basmati fetches highest prices in the international market.

"The year 2007-08 is characterised with record high prices of rice fetched by Pakistani Basmati at $1,100 per ton."

Meanwhile, the NWFP is fast heading for severest flour crisis as the price of the commodity continued its climb on Wednesday in the wake of week-long constraints on supply from the down country and cancellation of the additional quota to flourmills and dealers by the provincial government.

The ban on supply from Punjab - together with earnest demand in the NWFP and its adjacent tribal agencies - has driven the flour prices to record highs in the current month, which may even further go up in the coming weeks.

After increase in the price of wheat by the Punjab, the provincial government enhanced the price of 20kg bag by 70 rupees and it was being sold for Rs390 to Rs400 even at the fair price shops set up by the government in the district wherein it was earlier sold at Rs310. However, at the Utility Stores its rate was fixed Rs300.

The retailers have also increased the price of the fine quality flour by five rupees per kilogram and they continued to sell it at Rs35 per kg.

In the city flour market on the Ashraf Road the 20kg bag of local super quality flour was being sold at Rs570 to Rs600 and the price of 85kg shot up by 50 rupees and the dealers charged Rs2,850 for it. Besides, record high rates, the scarcity of the commodity on the local market also persisted for at least third consecutive day on Wednesday.

The flour crisis has worsened after the cancellation of the 1500 tonnes additional wheat quota to the flourmills in Peshawar and Mardan districts and termination of issuance of the 440 bags to each of the dealers in the flour markets of the provincial metropolis two days ago.

The provincial food minister, Muhammad Shuja Khan, told ''The News'' the government had to cancel the additional wheat quota, as it has to carry the existing stock over the 30th of this moth. He said the province has the wheat stock till April 30 and had the additional quota continued to the flourmills, the stock would have exhausted by the 25th of this month.

The minister said the current crisis would continue till the end of this month and the provincial government would stop wheat release to the flourmills by the 30th of the current month who will then obtain supplies from the local market.

To a question as to how the province would face a shortfall of over 1.2 million tonnes of wheat, he said the ANP-PPP coalition government was working out a wheat procurement policy to plug the gap and avert any crisis-like situation in the future. About the flour smuggling to the tribal areas and across the western border, Shuja said the government would set up more than one distribution points in every union council instead of bulk releases to check the menace.

Muhammad Sadiq, chairman of the Pakistan Flourmills Association, NWFP, said the government was releasing 6,000 tonnes of wheat to about two hundred flourmills against the local demand of above 8,500 tonnes, which is insufficient. Besides, putting an immediate end to the ongoing smuggling of the daily-use item, the government should increase the wheat releases to the mills by 2500 tonnes to overcome the current flour crisis, he said.

Our correspondent adds from Ghalanai: An agreement was inked between Mohmand tribes and political administration to bring to a halt the smuggling of flour to Afghanistan. Various committees have been formed to prevent flour smuggling. Some 1200 flour bags were distributed to the tribesmen on compensatory rate on the occasion.

Our correspondent adds from Mingora: The flour crisis intensified in Swat valley as 20 kg bag of flour was sold for Rs1,000 in the open market on Wednesday. Though the district administration has fixed price of 20 kg bag of flour at Rs390, it was sold for Rs500 in lower areas and Rs1,000 in upper Swat.

Our correspondent adds from Miramshah adds: Tochi Scouts also foiled a flour-smuggling bid by seizing 165 bags of wheat and 95 bags of flour, sources said. The dealers in North Waziristan Agency are charging Rs2,800 for an 80 kg sack of flour

Meanwhile, the Federal Food Committee (FFC) has asked the ministries of food and commerce to investigate the delay in the arrival of imported wheat that aggravated the shortage and caused the flour price to rise again, report agencies.

The ministries have been informed that the completion of shipment of 1.7 million tons of wheat was delayed in ''a pre-planned manner'' at a time when farmers in Punjab and Sindh were just harvesting the new crop.

The shipment should have been completed by March 15 under the contracts awarded by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan.

The last ship is expected to berth at Karachi port on April 27 after a delay of about one and a half months.

Sources said more than 35 per cent of the imported wheat had not arrived on time.
They said the FFC believed that the import contracts had been awarded to people who were in no position to ensure timely delivery.

The committee also asked the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock to investigate if bidding rules had been violated in the award of contracts.

The sources said the FFC had reservations about TCP''s inability to make the contractors meet the deadline at a time when the nation faced severe flour shortage.

They said the committee has also sought an investigation into the smuggling of 1.5 million tons of wheat this season, another reason behind the shortage.

The FFC told the Ministry of Food to lead efforts to unmask the people involved in smuggling in order to avert its recurrence.
Comments Add New
Write comment
Name:
Email:
  We don't publish your mail. See privacy policy.
Title:
Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.
 
< Prev   Next >