ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: Iran has agreed to procure 45,000 tons of rice from Pakistan.

This was disclosed by the visiting Iranian minister for agriculture and plant protection in a meeting chaired by Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood here on Thursday.

Understanding to buy Pakistani rice was reached during a meeting between Iranian foreign minister and President General Pervez Musharraf when the former visited Pakistan in Nov.

Iranian minister said that after Ramazan the process of implementation of procurement would start. The delegation of Grain Trading Corporation (GTC) of Iran will visit Pakistan after Ramazan to procure the rice consignment.

Razak Dawood, while giving an overview of the trade with Iran, apprised the delegation that since coming in of this government the quantum of imports from Iran have tangibly increased but the exports to Iran have decreased.

He said during his visit to Iran in July this year, he discussed with his Iranian counterpart matters pertaining to export of wheat, rice and citrus fruit.

Mr Razak said Pakistan’s wheat was of international standard and disease-free but he desired that Iranian technical delegation must satisfy themselves before finalizing the deal of procurement of 0.2 million tons of wheat and Pakistani experts will facilitate them in this respect.—APP