A high powered delegation of South Korea is scheduled to visit Pakistan for inspecting Pakistani rice for import. Korea which has started importing Pakistani rice since last year is interested to import the commodity at a large scale. According to sources the foreign delegation, is scheduled to visit Lahore, Karachi and other cities where they would inspect the quality of non-Basmati rice for import.
Confirming the forthcoming visit of the delegation Toufiq Ahmed Khan, Acting Chairman Rice Export Association of Pakistan (REAP) said that the foreign officials and experts would visit various agricultural units and laboratories to inspect the quality and standard of rice.
The state enterprises of South Korea would make a comprehensive study and visit various centers to formally start the import of Non-Basmati rice from Pakistan which has great demand in the foreign country. In reply to a query, he said that the residents of India and Pakistan in South Korea consume Basmati Rice imported from Pakistan while the other people consume non-basmati rice imported from other countries. “To tap the market of non-basmati rice in South Korea, the deal with state owned enterprises is of prime importance,” he added.
Besides the fresh developments, Pakistan, for the first time had started exporting rice to South Korea in 2009. The first consignment of 6,202 tonnes of rice was exported to the foreign country in December 2009 while the quantity of rice exported has been consistently increasing during January 2010 onwards, sources said. A Pakistani rice exporter company had won an order for more than 6,000 tonnes of Brown Rice to Korea after the rice category was included in the global quantity quota of Seoul.
As the Processed rice (Brown Rice) was included in the Korean global quotas quantity, Pakistan could avail the chance of exporting the same product that comparatively has a better standard.
According to the sources with the approval of the World Trade Organisation, private rice import to Korea is impossible apart from the quantity of ‘Minimum Market Access’ (MMA) by year 2014. The quantity of the MMA import quota is to be raised to 7.96 per cent of Korea’s total domestic consumption by 2014 from the 4 percent in 2004.
“This MMA quantity is divided into 2 quotas as local quota and global quota. Local quota (205,000 tons) is limited only to USA, China, Australia, and Thailand and table rice (white rice) is included in this quota. Global quotas quantity is increasing every year by (20,347 tonnes). Processed rice (Brown Rice) is included in global quotas which can be applied to Pakistani rice,” sources said.
These quotas, according to the sources, are supplied by a Korean trader through public bidding. Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) has designated Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp (AT) for this purpose as an official procuring Agency. One trader does business only with one overseas rice exporter. This tender begins in September every year. It is pertinent to mention here that the rice import to Korea is strictly controlled by Korean government while at least five per cent of basic tariff rate is equally applied.
