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Irri-6 exports

down by 50pc

ANWAR RAJANI

KARACHI: The volume of Irri-6 rice exports from Pakistan has declined this year by 50 percent, leaving the rice millers and growers in trouble.

Market sources attributed the fall in exports to the poor quality.

Total Irri-6 production is estimated at about 2.6 million tonnes per annum. Of this about 1.2 million tonnes are exported. This year only 0.6 million tonnes have been exported so far and about 0.6 million tonnes are lying in the godowns of rice mills.

The government of Pakistan had fixed the export price of Irri rice at 195 dollars per tonne. This was quite competitive. Irri rice from Thailand and Vietnam is being quoted between 200 and 250 dollars per tonne. But Pakistani rice is difficult to sell. However, India is reported to have imported about 60,000 tonnes of Pakistani Irri rice from Singapore and Dubai. Due to fall in exports, the growers have been forced to sell their paddy to low prices.

Irri-6 rice is produced only in Sindh.