Rafique Suleman, Senior Vice Chairman, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has drawn the attention of Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister of Sindh towards the prevailing severe condition of the rice export sector.

He apprised that in the Sindh province, non-basmati varieties (Irri-6, Irr-9, KS-282 etc) have been sown very late.

According to the association, Dadu, Larkana and other important rice growing areas are normally fed with three canals namely Rice Canal, Dadu Canal & Kheer Thar Canal once a year while farmers wait for this water flow keenly.

However, this year they have been provided the water with a delay of 30-45 days raising fears that the rice crop will arrive very late this year and farmers will have to suffer huge losses as a result of that. Taking into account the usual practices, he said that although there is some delay of 10-15 days every year, this year we have observed too much of a delay compared to the past.

While urging Chief Minister Sindh to take notice of this delay, Mr. Rafique Suleman expressed his concern that due to this delay, rice crop will be available for export purposes at a later date, thereby causing a delay in catering to their export orders which may hurt the image of rice exporters as well as that of our country.

He went on to raise concerns that the rice exporters may not be able to get decent prices for their rice output and will probably have to face difficulties in achieving their annual targets.

In addition, he also drew the attention of Sindh Government on a ban on rice sowing in some areas. While urging CM Murad Ali Shah to investigate the matter on a priority basis, he also requested for the permission to grow rice in more areas, so that they are able to generate extra crop and are consequently able to export more and therefore earn more foreign exchange for the country.

Rafique also added that this year rice exporters have observed that the limit of Moisture & Chalky in rice has been exceeding its normal limits causing them to run their rice processing plants for extra hours at a time when they were already facing an energy crisis.

He requested the concerned Ministries of the government to review the processing methods of rice and urged that the government should provide soft Islamic loans for the purchase of latest rice plants, so that they could make value addition in rice and get better prices for their rice output.

He also mentioned that they have already requested the State Bank of Pakistan for Long Term Finance on Islamic banking for the storage of rice and were still waiting for that approval. Citing its benefit, he said that the scheme will attract the attention of rice exporters as they will want to take advantage of this scheme.

During a recent meeting at TDAP, Rafique requested the Government of Pakistan to install a Dryer, on an experimental basis, that is funded by the Government in any one or two rice mills proposed by REAP. This request was made so that after the success of this pilot project, more rice farmers could get this facility on their rice processing area and the government could extend them soft Islamic loans for the installation of such a Dryer.

He complained that both the rice research institutes, i.e. Kala Shah Kaku (Punjab) and Dokri (Sindh) were not doing Research and development work in rice seeds and that since the last 10-15 years, there has been no rice seeds introduced by them.

As a result, he said that the members of the rice exporters association have been importing good quality Chinese hybrid rice seeds that have better results and greater yields.

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