achieved the milestone of exporting the commodity worth $2.511 billionduring the financial year 2021-22 by exporting slightly over 4.877 milliontons of rice despite various impediments such as higher freight rates andnon-availability of containers.
The total rice exports include 750,617 tons basmati and 4,126,674 tonsnon-basmati. Compared to the last fiscal 2020-21, the total rice exportsremained at 4.016 million tons.
Sharing the figures with Business Recorder on Wednesday, Rice ExportersAssociation of Pakistan (REAP) Chairman Ali Hussam Asghar said four factorsplayed major role in uplifting the rice exports from Pakistan which includeavailability of surplus stocks of non-basmati rice for exports, lowerprices of Basmati rice as compared to India at the start of the exportingseason, more basmati exports to the regional countries and permission bythe government to allow ‘bulk vessel loading’ for brown rice.
Ali Hussam said that due to lower prices of Basmati, international playersapproached Pakistan for their buying needs while permission to allow bulkvessel loading due to non-availability of containers in the requiredquantity, pushed up the exports helping Pakistan to achieve record exports.
He paid tribute to the government agencies for allowing the exporters toadopt bulk vessel loading method to meet their international commitments.
Replying to a query, he dispelled the impression that currency devaluationhas played any role in pushing the exports up as he claimed that it onlybecame possible due to availability of surplus non-basmati rice andinternational buyers who preferred Pakistani basmati due to pricedifference with India.
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Talking about the future road map, he said the government should invest allits energies in resolving the supply chain issues as well as growing moreto export more. “We have done what we can with the existing crop in handand situation will only improve if we can grow more. We have to incentivizefarmers rather encourage the services sector to come into the field forintroducing rice translators and rice harvesters to get more out of theland in hand,” he added.
Ali Hussam said using rice-translators can double the number of plants inone acre from 40,000 to 80,000 while rice specific harvesters can save thewastage of rice during harvesting. It will make available more productionper acre to add to the profitability of the farmers and other stakeholders.
“We should work on this side on emergent basis to take the exports to $3billion next year,” he remarked.
