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Singapore: Pakistan is likely to remove a minimum export price of $750 per tonne imposed on non-basmati rice to boost overseas sales after forecasts of a bumper harvest, a top industry official said on Monday.
"We are expecting the minimum export price on Irri 6 to be removed," said Abdul Basheer, vice-chairman of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP).
"We are hopeful that a notification will come within this week."
Pakistan, the world's fifth-largest rice exporter, had imposed a minimum export price to increase earnings and withhold some cargoes destined abroad in order to build a domestic strategic reserve.
Pakistani exporters are likely to offer Irri 6, a non-basmati variety, at $400-$450 per tonne free on board at Karachi port after the minimum export price is removed, he said.
The nation is expected to sell up to 250,000 tonnes of rice by end-October as the exporters were aggressively positioning themselves.
"As far as India remains closed for the coming three to four months, Pakistan is going to go very fast in its exports," Basheer told Reuters on phone from Karachi.
"In September and October we hope to ship about a quarter million tonnes, everybody has a lot of money and they are just waiting."
The official estimated Pakistan's 2008 rice output to rise 27 per cent to seven million tonnes in 2008 from 5.5 million tonnes a year ago. Pakistan's rice exports jumped 50 per cent to 3.2 million tonnes in first half of 2008 as one of its main competitors, India, imposed curbs on the overseas sale of the grain.
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