GROUP PHOTO: Members of the REAP delegation led by Rafique Suleman, third from right, with Ambassador of Pakistan to Qatar Shahzad Ahmad, centre, front row.    Photo: Umer Nangiana

By Umer Nangiana


Pakistan being an agro-based economy has natural abundance of all agricultural products including food items. Rice is the third largest crop after wheat and cotton.
Grown over 10% of the total cropped area, rice is highly valued cash crop and is also major export item. It accounts for 6.7% in value-added agriculture and 1.6% in GDP. Pakistan grows enough high quality rice to meet both domestic demand and allow for exports of around one million ton per annum.
The country has been consistently exporting its high quality rice to Qatar for many years. In 2011-12, Pakistan exported over 50,000 metric ton of Basmati rice for over US$50 million besides more than 36,000 metric ton of non-Basmati rice worth more than US$21 million.
However, the trend in exports went downwards from there on and only 15,000 metric ton of Basmati rice was exported to Qatar from Pakistan between July 2014 and May 2015.
A delegation comprising leading rice exporters from Pakistan — members of Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) — is in town, seeking enhanced export of Pakistani rice to Qatar. Led by Rafique Suleman, the Chairman of REAP, the delegation was invited to Qatar by the Ambassador of Pakistan to Qatar Shahzad Ahmad.
During the two-day visit, the delegation met with representatives of leading rice importing companies in Qatar and officials of the Government of Qatar, facilitated by the Embassy of Pakistan.
“Trade in rice with Qatar has been really good till 2010 but then it dropped for some reasons,” Suleman told Community at a dinner reception hosted by the Ambassador of Pakistan at his residence here recently.
“We are here to determine the reasons for that drop and would try get the problems fixed in order to bring the rice import to Qatar from Pakistan back to its high once again,” the delegation leader added.
He praised the efforts of the ambassador and urged him to provide continued support to the Pakistani exporters, assuring him that Pakistan has the potential to export large quantity of good quality rice to Qatar.
“We have all latest laboratories available in Pakistan to test rice for any standards applicable in the world at present. We export almost 4 million ton of rice to different parts of the world and are 4th largest exporters in the world,” said Suleman.
He said they just needed a bit of support from the Qatari government and the exporters of rice in Pakistan are capable of enhancing the current rate of rice export to Qatar from Pakistan to almost US$100 million.
He hoped to hold a meeting with the officials of Central Tenders Committee (CTC) in Qatar that floats the tenders for import of rice for local companies in Qatar. The delegation leader said they would urge the CTC to include Pakistan’s name in the list of countries as ‘Pakistan origin,’ to facilitate the import of rice by local companies directly from Pakistan.
“Our Basmati rice is considered as best in the world. It sells at top price in United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA) and many other countries. We know that the market in Qatar is almost 100,000 ton of rice and we can deliver this quantity,” said the delegation leader.
He said the REAP delegation went to Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines before arriving in Qatar. From there, they would head to Bahrain before proceeding to China and Britain.
“We have more than 30 qualities of rice in Pakistan and the non-Basmati variety is our biggest export. The delegation’s mission is to gain contracts directly from countries’ governments so that the exports of top-quality Pakistani rice can be increased manifold to [its full potential].”
The REAP delegation includes prominent exporters of rice and other agriculture products from all over Pakistan.
In 1988-89, REAP came into existence and started interacting with the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and also the Planning Division of the Government of Pakistan.  
It is, Suleman said, the second largest export trade body registered with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of Pakistan. It has an active membership of 1,500 throughout the country.