Pakistan agrees to provide 25,000 MT of rice to Sri Lanka

Wednesday, 12 July 2017 09:52 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Islamabad: Pakistan has agreed to initially provide 25,000 metric tonnes of non-basmati rice to Sri Lanka that will be procured on a government to government basis, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

A Sri Lankan delegation arrived in Islamabad on Monday to negotiate with Pakistani officials to finalise a deal to export 300,000 metric tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka. The high level Sri Lankan delegation led by the Secretary to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Chinthana Lokuhetti has started bilateral negotiations for reaching the final agreements to export non-basmati rice to Sri Lanka, according to a senior official of the Pakistan Ministry of Commerce.

A meeting headed by Pakistan Secretary Commerce Younas Dhaga was held at the Ministry of Commerce where the two sides discussed the procedure for exporting non-basmati rice to Sri Lanka.

The two sides also discussed signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Trade Corporation of Pakistan and Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) of Sri Lanka for sullying commodities.

TCP Chairman Mushtaq Ahmed Sheikh and representatives of the local rice association also participated in the negotiation.

He said that domestic production of rice in Sri Lanka was low and it was willing to import non-Basmati rice from Pakistan.

Sri Lanka Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen said the Sri Lankan team on 12 July will head to Myanmar from Islamabad to test Burmese rice varieties for the Sri Lankan market.

He said the team, after checking both the Pakistani and Myanmar markets, would decide whether to choose Pakistan or Myanmar (or both) to purchase the rice.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have enjoyed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) since 2005. Under the FTA, Sri Lanka enjoys duty free market access on 206 products in the Pakistani market including tea, rubber and coconut while Pakistan gets duty free access on 102 products in the Sri Lankan market, including oranges, basmati/non-basmati rice and engineering goods.