PM calls for boosting rice exports

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for encouraging rice exporters so that Pakistan gets its maximum share in the international market.

Presiding over a meeting of the National Export Development Board, Prime Minister Imran Khan directed to put special focus on the production of organic and brown rice and encourage the people for its use so that the increasing trend of sugar disease in the country could be checked.

He also directed the relevant authorities to take all possible measures for the effective implementation of the Long-Term Financing (LTF) and export refinancing scheme for enhancing rice exports.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Dr Shehbaz Gill, top rice exporters and senior officials concerned were present on the occasion.

The meeting was informed that with vast prospects of improvement in rice exports, the current $2 billion rice exports target could be taken to $5 billion by increasing the per acre yield of the commodity through laser levelling of land and adopting modern means of cultivation and harvesting.