ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday asked the relevant ministries to prepare a comprehensive plan for grabbing maximum share in the Russian market through exports.

The idea evolved after the recent visit of the finance minister to Russia where he met top officials of Russian government to explore ways and mean for enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries.

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In the first step, the finance minister asked ministry of commerce to prepare for the World Food Exhibition 2015 in Moscow and also arrange single country exhibitions to allure foreign exporters.

Secretary Commerce Shehzad Arbab at this juncture informed the meeting that that the commerce ministry was organising seminars in Lahore highlighting exports opportunities to prospective businessmen and traders.

To work out a comprehensive plan, Dar directed the ministries of commerce and national food security to coordinate and prepare a comprehensive plan identifying exportable food products, keeping in view whether surplus quantities and requisite quarantine arrangements were available.

The finance minister observed that quality standards should be considered in advance to ensure the success of the export plan. He emphasised that exports enhancement should not come at the cost of shortage for domestic consumers.

The secretary food responded that the export plan would take due cognisance of this factor. He also mentioned about a detailed programme for growth in agriculture with a view to enhance agriculture exports. He said surge in agricultural exports will encourage investment in the sector.

The minister said that such a programme would be extended after due consideration.

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Ishaq Dar urged senior officials of commerce ministry, ministry of food security and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) to urgently come up with a plan for exporting agricultural products to Russia, aiming to enhance overall exports volume of the country and lessen current account deficit.

He also called upon prospective exporters to take advantage of the ban imposed by the Russian government on agricultural imports from European countries.

The federal minister was briefed on ways and means to enhance volume of agricultural trade with Russia and said the relevant ministries had already initiated measures to have export destinations for Pakistani food products in Russia.

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Finance Minister Dar also said that Russia has been importing food items worth $35 billion from around the world, particularly European countries and the ban on imports is creating a space of $16 billion which should be captured. “Certainly we would like to have a share in this available market,” he remarked.

Pakistan has a sturdy agriculture sector which contributes 21 per cent share to the GDP.

“We can provide incentives to this sector to further prosper if we find new export destinations for our products,” Dar remarked.