LARKANA, Sept 9: The Sindh Balochistan Rice Millers and Traders Association (SBRMTA) has feared that the trend of cheating in rice export, if not checked, will destroy the rice growers, millers and the genuine exporters.

The SBRMTA president, Gada Hussain Mahesar, in a communication sent to the federal ministers for commerce and agriculture and the advisor to president for agriculture on Monday, said that most of the exporters preferred to purchase inferior quality rice and earn huge benefit by reprocessing it.

They had not only delayed the payments to the traders but also siphoned off millions of rupees of the growers and traders, he said and deplored that the government remained a silent spectator under the situation.

He alleged that due to flexible attitude of the government, the exporters, after purchasing millions of tons of rice from growers, either fled from the country or went underground.

He alleged the Riaz Laljee, Mehboob Private Company, Pir Bakhsh and Company, The Merchant International, Zulfikar Trading Company, Ghaffar Corporation and Al-Nawaz Company were the exporters, who not only cheated the growers and traders but disappeared with their millions of rupees.

Repeated complaints in this regard landed on deaf ears of government, Mahesar deplored.

He said that the Rice Exporters Association did not care to save the growers and traders from the cheater exporters.

Thus finding fertile ground, the exporters came with new companies in the market every year and continued their corrupt practice, Mahesar said.

He said that due to the existing state of non-cooperation among the genuine exporters, growers and millers, the rice trade in Sindh and Balochistan was drastically affected.

Under the present trend, the market had witnessed 40 per cent decline in the export of coarse rice.

He said that around 1.2 million tons of rice was being exported from Sindh and Balochistan provinces alone, which earned $ 20 million foreign exchange for the country.

The SBRMTA chief proposed to the government to constitute a coordination committee with the coarse rice exporters and rice millers’ associations as its members to evolve a smooth export policy in order to avoid losses in the future.

The committee would create a sense of security among the growers, millers and genuine exporters, he concluded.