ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is considering extending the period of lifting ban on the import of red kidney beans from Ethiopia on the condition that the SOPs the two countries agreed to observe are fully complied with by the Ethiopian government, Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhr Imam said on Thursday.

Speaking to Pakistan’s ambassador-designate to Ethiopia Syed Shozab Abbas, the minister said it was important that the Ethiopian side keeps on sharing progress on the Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) with our Department of Plant Protection (DPP) for permanent settlement of this issue based on scientific evidence and procedures.

Mr Fakhr Imam said the draft memorandum of understanding on agricultural cooperation formerly proposed by the Ethiopian side could not be finalised due to poor response of the provincial governments. He suggested that the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) may sign an MoU with its counterpart, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organisation, for which a draft of MoU may be shared by PARC after completion of the internal formalities of the Pakistan government.

The PARC has suggested that Pakistan can extend assistance to Ethiopian side in the many areas which include honey bee management and value addition, poultry production and processing, developing and fabricating agricultural machinery and farm implements, livestock breed improvement, and artificial insemination and rehabilitation of degraded lands, conservation of biodiversity.

This year, Pakistan exported 150 metric tons of maize starch with the value of $0.033 million and 362.30 metric tons of rice valued at $0.20 million. Similarly, this year Ethiopia imported 152.5 metric tons of black tea, 12,160 metric tons of kidney beans and 213 metric tons of Pinto Beans worth $11.414 million.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2020