January 3, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 29, 1423

BEIJING, Jan 2: The Chinese government has announced its rice import quota for the year 2003, and hoped that Pakistani traders would also take benefit of it.

The local enterprises have been allowed to import 2.2525 million tons of long grain rice and 1.52905 million tons of short-grain rice during the year.

A Chinese official told APP that Pakistan, which is producing world’s top quality rice, would be welcomed to compete in the local market. The existing export of Pakistani rice to China is very nominal.

Thailand is the major exporter of rice to China. Its annual rice shipment has almost crossed the 7 million-ton mark in recent years.

Quality-wise Pakistani rice is the best and could be the most popular in China, said a Chinese trader Zhao Ziqian. She said Pakistan white rice Irri-6, Irri-9, Basmati-385, super basmati rice, silky polish basmati and super basmati rice could be very popular in China.

She expressed the hope that Chinese would prefer Pakistani rice, which is of top quality due to its extra long grain, natural aroma and delicious taste.

Rice is the staple food of Chinese.

China has set import quotas for agricultural products for local enterprises to take effect in 2003.

According to the State Development Planning (SDPC), the import quota includes 8.652 million tons of wheat, 6.325 million tons of corn, 2.618 million tons of bean oil, 2.5 million tons of palm oil, 918,600 tons of rapeseed oil, 1.1522 million tons of sugar and 356,250 tons of cotton.

The SDPC also maintained import quotas for food processing, including 400,000 tons of wheat, 200,000 tons of corn, 75,000 tons of long-grain rice, 75,000 tons of short-grain rice, 200,000 tons of bean oil,100,000 tons of palm oil, 100,000 tons of rape seed oil, 700,000 tons of sugar and 500,000 tons of cotton.

The SDPC said local enterprises will be able to apply for the 2003 import quota for food processing as well as the 2003 import tariff quota for wool beginning Jan 2, 2003.

In China the demand for imported rice has increased after its entry into WTO. The accession to the WTO will transform China into one of the world’s main buyers of rice. China’s obligations to the WTO would require it to allow entry of up to 4 million tons of rice annually.—APP