KARACHI, Feb 2: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has warned against the repercussions of the intervention in rice market and urged the government to facilitate the private sector in the export trade.

President Unisame Zulfikar Thaver said in a statement that the government intervention in rice trade through TCP and Passco has severely harmed the rice trade and presently, the private sector exporters are unable to enter into export commitments.

He said that procuring rice from the few selected mills showed the government impartiality and even growers had not benefited from this move.

Mr Thaver alleged that small and medium size growers were deceived by false promises as their paddy remained unsold, while Passco was buying only from influential people with political background. The winter rains also damaged paddy lying in the open in the hope Passco will buy it, he added.

He regretted that every year “we are making the same mistake and not learning from the past”. The worst sufferers are the SMEs, which are involved in farming, milling, processing, trading and export.

Member managing committee Unisame Mehboob Piracha said the government had failed to support the paddy growers and instead footing huge bill for supporting those millers, who have political links.

He further said that the government had failed to give a clear rice export policy and it was not coming up with logical reasons as to why the TCP had been asked to procure rice from the influential people.

It is only due to marketing efforts by the exporters that the farmers brought more land under cultivation, which resulted in increase in production from 3.5 million to 6.5 million tons.