KARACHI: Rice exporters from Pakistan have obtained orders worth $ 4 million from China during a recent visit. Shipment of these orders will start from second week of next month.
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) senior Vice Chairman Chela Ram said that the visit of 25-member delegation to China for further exploration of rice market was successful initially, as exporters have got orders about 10,000 tonnes of rice. “We had very interactive meetings with Chinese authorities and leading rice buyers. Chinese consumers take keen interest in Pakistani rice especially ‘long grain’ because of its high quality,” he said.
After fulfilling the trial orders, we are hopeful to get export orders of huge quantity of Pakistani rice in future and trade between both the friendly countries will increase in a significant ratio.
He said that China has emerged as a new rice market for Pakistani traders and it is expected that after the recent visit Pakistan’s rice exports to China will gradually increase in upcoming years.
He said, “Pakistan’s rice exports to China stood at 500,000 metric tonnes during FY-13. “We are optimistic that, exports of Pakistani rice would cross 0.7 to 1.0 million metric tons at the end of FY14. To gain maximum foreign exchange from China and extract maximum price, we must focus on bilateral trade, which ensures better pricing due to less freight costs and swift transfer of funds as compared to other countries.”
He requested the government to send REAP delegations to China on regular basis at least twice in every financial year, to maintain and increase the market share of Pakistani rice, as the Pakistani rice exporters are putting huge investments and developing their infrastructure by installing latest rice machineries and plants for improving their capabilities to cater the export orders.
