Pakistan’s rice exporters have reportedly reacted severely to claims about basmati rice by the Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Agriculture, Jamshed Cheema.
Cheema said that the export markets’ demand is mostly for coarse rice but Pakistani farmers are only focused on basmati rice although they should shift to the production of coarse rice. He added that basmati rice should only be produced for local consumption.
The Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) denounced this statement, saying that Pakistani basmati rice fetches more than $800 million in exports every year, which also speaks of its massive export potential.
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The REAP Chairman, Qayum Paracha, said that the SAPM’s statement about the demand for basmati rice is “patently false and misleading”.
He stated that the “REAP would like to apprise that basmati is sown in Punjab since the seventeenth century, and due to its unique aroma, our basmati rice acts as Pakistan’s ambassador globally”.
Pakistan’s current exports of rice of all varieties are nearly $2.3 billion per annum, and the basmati rice category contributes $800 million of this total, Paracha added. He further stated that hundreds of thousands of people in the entire supply chain of basmati rice, including farmers, millers, workforce, exporters, and brand owners, are dependent on it.
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The REAP Chairman retorted that instead of encouraging research on and increasing the yield of the basmati crop which has a potential of more than $3 billion export annually, the SAPM is discouraging the sowing of this heritage product.
“Such irresponsible statements by people sitting on [the] highest echelons of Pakistan will jeopardize our case in [the] European Union. Such [a] damaging stance by a high official of the government negates all our efforts to safeguard our heritage since centuries in basmati rice besides billions invested in rice mills, export market brand equity,” he remarked.
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