KARACHI, Dec 16: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has invited the attention of the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) to the dilemma faced by the rice stakeholders due to steps taken by the government without proper home work.

In a statement Zulfikar Thaver, the Unisame president, said that the small farmers were not recovering their cost of production due to costly inputs, millers are not in a position to pay a reasonable price to growers and processors are not able to fetch a better price due to lack of demand and low prices prevailing in the world market.

He said the boycott of the TCP tender by the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) offered no respite to the stakeholders as each sector is facing the brunt of the half-hearted policy of the government.

He suggested that the cost of the growers must be assessed before fixing the support price to ensure no loss to the growers. Similar strategy should be framed for millers, processors and exporters to maximise exports.

He said the main reason for slackness in rice business was due to the financial crunch both at domestic and global level and good crop in all the rice producing countries.

Mr Thaver said the government should not have taken any drastic measure by allowing TCP to procure 100,000 tons of basmati rice and 200,000 tons of Irri-6 rice without reviewing the current rice market situation the world over.