The harvesting of rice crop has been started in both Sindh and Punjab provinces and the exporters are confident that Pakistan would easily surpass the set production target of 5 million tons and would get 5.3 million tons till May 2006, depicting a surge of 0.3 million tons.
During 2004-05, Pakistan had exported some 2 million tons rice, worth $933 million.
The exporters are of the view that after fulfilling the local needs of 2.4 million tons rice, the country would export some 2.5 million tons rice this year, while the remaining 3 million tons of rice stocks would be carried forward for next year.
Commenting on the growth of country's exports, former Chairman of Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP), Abdul Rahim Janoo said, "Rice production of Pakistan stood at 4.5 to 4.6 million tons during 2001-02. However, last year it witnessed 18 percent value-addition and reached $933 million."
"The demand for parboil is growing tremendously across the world mainly in the European countries as it is easy to cook and working women prefer this brand," Janoo remarked.
He said that some eight factories of parboil rice have been established and 14 would start working soon in the Sindh and Punjab provinces.
"Since India is manufacturing world class machinery for parboil rice, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) sent a delegation to India last December where we bought eight boilers, of which seven have been installed in Sindh and one in the Punjab region," he added.
"There is a great potential for Pakistan in China in terms of rice exports. That is why EPB is planning to send a delegation there in December this year, which will see the prospects of basmati rice exports in China and finally prepare a feasibility report in this connection," said an exporter.
The exporters are confident that Pakistan would easily get export orders of around 75,000 tons to 100,000 tons from China in the coming days as its crop has been damaged severely due to natural calamities.
Besides China, Pakistan is also planning to further explore and enter new markets including Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Yemen, South Africa, Nigeria and Canada.
It is estimated that around 27 percent, or 1 million tons rice production goes wastage every year during harvesting and if government focuses more on this crop and provide 'interest free loan' facility to the growers the losses could be shed by adopting state-of-the-art technology.
"By adopting international standards of harvesting, the losses could be contained and per hectare production could be increased which has still shown better progress of 11 percent in the current circumstances," said an exporter.