LAHORE (DNA) – Pakistan can make inroads at the European Union and boost the exports of basmati rice where the content of pesticides found higher compared to the new rulings effective from January 1, 2018. Sameeullah Naeem, Chairman of Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) told on phone from Lahore that an opening has been created following the new ruling of the European Union. He said recently basmati rice arriving from India was tested and about 70% of the commodity was found with chemical content known as Tricylazole chemical.
Chairman explained this chemical was found as farmers usually use it as fungicide against Bacteria Blight and Blast. The amount of the chemical has been higher as per new ruling. According to new formation the content of the chemical in rice should be around 0.01mg per kilogram but after testing the chemical has been detected at 0.5 mg per kilogram which has hazardous.
Following these revelation, Pakistani exporters could capture the market to the tune of nearly 200,000 metric tons of basmati rice. Exporters could capture the EU market and could boost the exports by nearly 260 million dollars.
However, the Chairman REAP explained that it could be possible if the government intervene in the matter and give support and incentive to exporters.
“We need to market and place our products in chains of super markets in the EU which requires heavy investment”, he said.
Our basmati rice is high quality rice with graceful fragrance and above all our growers do not use chemical and pesticide on the commodity, he said. It is the best time to grab this opportunity and enter the EU market with a bang.
