Rice millers set $5-billion export target for 2023

PM adviser offers support, says China and Japan willing to help

KARACHI: Pakistan has had enough power plants and road infrastructure and now the government will develop the agriculture sector with the help of Beijing under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), remarked Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industries, Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Saturday.

He was talking to members of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) which included its Chairman Safder Hussain Mehkri, former chairman Abdul Rahim Janoo and others. The adviser appreciated the new target of exporting $5 billion worth of rice, assuring rice millers that the government would provide full support.

Dawood said the Japanese were also willing to help Pakistan in the agriculture sector, adding that in 2003, when he visited the REAP office, rice exports were only $300 million and now they had crossed $2 billion.

“People at REAP are not ordinary, they are visionary people who keep thinking about boosting their sector,” remarked the PM adviser. “Let us meet every quarter or six months to discuss and take a step forward to this goal.”

Earlier, the REAP chairman revealed that the rice exporters were aiming to ship $5 billion worth of the commodity by 2023.

“Farmers who use modern technologies get a yield of 70 maunds (40 kg) per acre as compared to regular farmers who get a yield of 40 maunds per acre,” said Arif Nadeem, CEO of Pakistan Agriculture Coalition. Rice exporters said the sector needed backward integration and the industry and government should join hands in order to train farmers in new ways of farming.

Pakistan’s seeds were degenerating and these should be replaced with better seeds, they said. Farming practices in the country are also obsolete, which should be modernised.

According to the exporters, the rice crop in the country is damaged as it does not have modern drying and storage facilities. Rice mills are also in need of adopting innovative ways of processing.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2019.

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