KARACHI, March 21: After harvesting bumper paddy crop of 5.5 million tons the country is now poised to make a record export worth over $1 billion owing to larger surplus quantity and better prices being fetched for the current season 2005-06 crop.

For the first time the crop size is equally divided into Irri-6 and Basmati rice. After meeting domestic consumption there would remain around 1.8 million tons exportable surplus of Irri-6. The Basmati rice, however, will have lesser exportable surplus of around 0.8 million tons owing to higher domestic consumption.

According to official figures for July-February period of the current fiscal, the country exported around 1.7 million tons of rice, which included 1.3 million tons of Irri-6 and 0.4m tons of Basmati.

The export of Basmati rice during the period recorded an increase of 13 per cent at 0.465 million tons compared to 0.410 million tons in the corresponding period last year. Similarly, there was higher earning by 20 per cent at $267 million as against $222 million in the same period last year.

Exporters managed to make deals at better prices for the Basmati this year as average price stood at $573 per ton as against $541 per ton last year, thereby, resulting in higher export earning by 20 per cent in foreign exchange.

There is growing demand for Pakistani Basmati rice from across the Western border because Iran and Afghanistan are keen to meet their demand and also replenish their stocks. Other major consumers of Basmati rice are the oil rich states of Gulf and Middle East.

Iran has shown its keen interest and has already floated tender for the purchase of 30,000 tons Basmati rice and also wants to lift large quantity of Irri-9 rice. However, the crop size of Irri-9 is small and does not exceed 250,000 tons. Consequently, on strong demand from Iran the domestic price of Irri-9 shot up from Rs13,000 to Rs15,500 per ton.

Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) chairman Haji Abdul Majid told Dawn that there was a big problem while dealing with Iran as the pre-shipment inspection (PSI) of rice was carried out by their own official team which many a times resulted in cancellation of deals. However, other countries including Gulf and Middle East totally depend on Quality Review Committee (QRC) for pre-shipment inspection.

“We managed to make breakthrough into new markets including Iran which in the past used to be reluctant to purchase Pakistani rice, similarly, Iraq, Thailand and Philippines are new markets for our rice,” observed Majid.

He stressed that there was an urgent need of government involvement in exploring and opening up of Malaysian and Indonesian markets which normally prefer to import huge quantity of rice from other ASEAN member states because of proximity and advantage of lower freight.

However, he said that Pakistan being the largest importer of edible oil from Indonesia and Malaysia could exert pressure because presently we import around 1.3 million tons of palm oil from both the countries at a cost of around $900 million per annum.

“Indonesia imports around 1.3 million tons of rice and Malaysia around one million tons annually and they should give some market share to Pakistan, who is their biggest palm oil buyer,” he added.

He disclosed that REAP was taking a delegation to Saudi Arabia in April. But, According to official sources the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) was also taking a trade delegation the same month, therefore, it would be in the best national interest that the REAP delegation should have joined the official team which could save extra expenditures.

Giving July-February (2005-06) figures, he said the country exported around 1.25 million ton of Irri-6 and was likely to export another 200,000 tons during current month which would take the total to around 1.45 million tons.

With expected exportable surplus of 1.8 million tons of Irri-6 this would mean that a balance of around 0.4 million tons would be left to export in coming months.

Exporters were fetching an average price of $350 to $360 per ton for Irri-6.

Due to higher demand for Pakistani rice domestic prices also firmed up from Rs11,200 per ton to Rs11,600. Much of the Irri-6 was exported to West African and East African countries.

However, Majid said that there was also strong demand from Iran 40,000 tons of Irri-6. Similarly, he said Iraq was seeking 50,000 tons and Philippines 50,000 tons. He suggested that with improved supply side by introducing high yield rice Pakistan could become one of the leading rice exporter in the world.

He expected that the country this season would be able to export rice worth $1.2 billion and would join the exporters’ elite club of “one billion

dollar.”