RICE
contributes 9pc to the national export proceed and 3.1pc to the agriculture GDP
of Pakistan.
During
the last decade, the composition of rice exports has changed drastically.
Basmati’s share in rice exports has declined from 58pc in 2007-08 to 24pc in 2015-16.
In value terms, the basmati exports have declined from $1.1bn to $447m whereas
that of non-basmati varieties has nearly doubled from $767m to $1.4bn.
Though
this transformation appears inconsequential as the net export proceeds remain
similar, it’s indeed regressive as Pakistan is being knocked out of the premium
quality rice segment and improving competitiveness in the coarse rice market
characterised by a price race to the bottom.
The
main reason for the unending slide in Pakistan’s basmati exports is the gradual
erosion of competitiveness and the failure to adapt the product with the
evolving international market dynamics in a zero-sum competition with the only
other basmati producing country india.
During
the last 20 years, India has seized the basmati market from Pakistan owing to
its lead in the development of basmati varieties and improvement in processing
technologies especially parboiling.
Since
1995, India has developed more than 20 high-yielding, disease-resistant and
extra-long varieties of basmati, its hybrids and look-alikes, whereas in
Pakistan no successful indigenous high-yielding basmati variety has been
fielded since the approval of Super Basmati in 1990s.
Conversely,
the Basmati-385 variety has commercially petered out due to unviable low yields
and shorter grain length; Super Basmati has degenerated in natural varietal
life-cycle.
Around 46pc of the global basmati
consumption, outside the subcontinent, is in Saudi Arabia and Iran only. In the
Saudi market of $1.4bn, Pakistan has gradually lost its share to India from
59pc in 1986 to a meagre 6pc in 2015 whereas in Iranian market of $1.2bn
Pakistan’s share is a dismal 0.4pc now
The
two recent Indian-developed varieties 1121 and 1509 have nearly taken over the
increasingly parboiled-preferring global basmati market. Both the varieties
have average grain length (AGL) of 8.1-8.4mm and a per acre paddy yield of
2.0-2.4 tonnes compared with 7.0 to 7.4mm AGL and 1.2 to 1.7 tonnes yield of
Super Basmati. The superior aroma of Super Basmati becomes irrelevant for the
parboiled/sela rice as the aromatic compounds evaporate in the parboiling
process.
While
Pakistan has been trying to preserve its natural heritage of basmati at
international forums and through promulgation of legislation on geographical
indications, the commercial extinction of indigenous basmati varieties would
render such protection meaningless.
On
the processing side, India has secured a technological advantage by developing
mechanised parboiling technology which ensures color consistency and absence of
odour which sets in through manual parboiling techniques. The development of
1121 and 1509 varieties ideally complemented the parboiling technology.
The
market side developments have also accentuated Pakistan’s struggle in the world
market.
The
global basmati market size has phenomenally grown from 2m metric tonnes (MMT)
in 2005 to 4.7MMT in 2016, whereas Pakistan’s share has declined from 42pc to
11pc during the same period in all the major basmati importing countries.
Around
46pc of the global basmati consumption, outside the sub-continent, is in Saudi
Arabia and Iran only. In Saudi market of $1.4bn, Pakistan has gradually lost
its share to India from 59pc in 1986 to a meagre 6pc in 2015 whereas in Iranian
market of $1.2bn Pakistan’s share is a dismal 0.4pc now.
Though
the loss of share in Iranian market can be partly attributed to economic
sanctions, the near elimination of Pakistan from the Saudi market is owing to
loss of competitiveness, failure to adapt the product offerings and poor
marketing.
The
EU’s duty-free regime of brown basmati imports makes the EU a unique market for
basmati but Pakistani basmati has been generally faring well here.
Poor
marketing techniques and poorer business ethos have also contributed to the erosion
of Pakistan’s market share. In 1999, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan
with the support of the Export Promotion Bureau had set an unprecedented model
of voluntarily creating a Quality Review Committee (QRC) for mandatory
inspection of basmati rice to ensure quality standards and checking the
mislabelling of blended rice as basmati.
The
blended rice exporters, after around 15 years of consistent effort to undo the
QRC, were finally able to get it disbanded in 2015, further eroding the quality
perception of Pakistani basmati in the import markets.
To
conclude, Pakistan is steadily regressing in a progressing global basmati
market due to loss of competitiveness ensuing from productivity crisis,
innovation deficit in varietal development and processing technologies, lack of
product adaptation, and poor marketing techniques and ethos.
The
strategy to regain the market share in premium rice segment entails: immediate
focus on agronomic research of high-yield, short-period, long-grain,
drought-and-disease-resistant basmati varieties; proliferation of processing
technologies; re-introduction of mandatory pre-shipment inspection mechanism
for improving quality perception of Pakistani basmati; promotion of
branding
and development of short-term penetration strategy for the post-sanctions
Iranian market.
The
writer is a joint secretary (Exim), Ministry of Commerce
http://www.dawn.com/news/1305753/need-to-develop-competitive-basmati-for-global-market-share
International
Temperate Rice Conference program announced
2 Jan 2017, 9:29 a.m.
Griffith is set to host an
international rice convention in March, highlighting the city’s important
contribution to the rice industry on both an international and national
platform.
The program for the sixth
international temperate rice conference (ITRC) was revealed in December, with
organisers promising the four day event will showcase the latest
advancements in temperate rice research, technology and innovation.
Keynote speakers announced
included Dr Steve Linscombe, a senior rice breeder at Louisiana State
University Agricultural centre, Professor of food science at the University of
Queensland’s School of Agriculture and Food Sciences Melissa Fitzgerald
and Dr Russell Reinke a senior scientist in rice breeding and bio-fortification
from the International Rice Research Institute.
Head of the ITRC organising committee
Russell Ford said the rice industry experts would explore topics including
breeding, agronomy, biotic stress, crop protection, precision agriculture and
process over the two day conference.“The conference is a rare opportunity, not
only to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our rice growers, but to
learn and network with growers and industry professionals alike from around the
world,” he said.The ITRC will run from Monday, March 6 to Thursday, March 9,
registrations are open until Friday, February 24
http://www.areanews.com.au/story/4382066/citys-global-conference-shapes-up/
Pacifict
microbes in disease treatment may make pathogens stronger
Janury 2, 2017 - 5:57pm
Introducing pacifist
microbes into treatment to combat is popular in some circles, yet unproven.
It's not as crazy as using a placebo to treat symptoms similar to a disease, as
homeopathy charlatans do, but it remains unvalidated. However, in agriculture
microbial disease treatment could be beneficial, whereas homeopathy is stupid
and inhumane. It has been suggested that this approach could also be an
effective way of treating cancer, and scientists have already produced
encouraging results in the fight against Clostridium difficile infections.
One new paper claims that introducing 'friendlier' less-potent
strains into a population of disease-causing microbes can lead to increased
disease severity. Instead of being a 'silver bullet' to weaken disease, the
pacifist microbes could make the aggressive pathogen stronger, which could hamper
disease management.
One strategy being explored to treat infections that resist current
drugs involves neutralizing the disease-causing agent. This strategy involves
extracting the agent from the patient so that scientists can remove components
of the microbe's DNA in order to neutralize the disease.This new harmless agent
is then grown in the lab and re-introduced to the disease site with the
expectation that it will out-compete its more harmful cousin by stealing
resources the disease needs to proliferate. Such research has proved effective
in several lab tests.
The scientists tested this method in rice blast infections, but
found more severe disease symptoms. The scientists used cooperation theory and
mathematical modeling to identify the reason for their surprising result. They
found that in some circumstances pacifists "helped" aggressive
microbes to be more efficient in utilizing resources obtained from the host.
Professor Ivana Gudelj, who led the research, said, "Our study
shows that a promising disease management strategy may not always be effective
and indeed may have damaging unforeseen consequences. Importantly, our work
also provides a foundation for the analysis of when, and why, this can happen.
We find that the mechanisms driving our unexpected findings when treating rice
blast infection are pertinent for many diseases involving bacterial and fungal
pathogens."
Professor Nick Talbot, Professor of Molecular Genetics at
University of Exeter said, "The strategy of introducing less aggressive
microbes to fight more aggressive ones may prove effective to control some crop
disease, but our study shows that they are not a silver bullet and caution
needs to be exercised. We need to understand how microbes interact with each
other in natural settings, before we can try to alter their ability to cause
disease in this way. Our study also shows why mathematicians and biologists
need to work together more often, because we would not have understood this
phenomenon at all without the mathematical analysis carried out."
The scientists tested this strategy using a plant pathogen, the
devastating rice blast disease. They introduced a mixed population of the
fungus that causes this disease into rice, where the mixture included an
aggressive strain and a pacifist mutant. They expected that the overall disease
severity would decrease because of the presence of the pacifist strain.
However, they found the opposite. The rice plants succumbed to much more severe
disease.The research shows that the therapy can in some circumstances have the
opposite effect, and that the way the pathogen will behave can be
unpredictable, leading to more severe disease.
http://www.sciencecodex.com/node/190309
NFA allows groups, firms to
import rice
JANUARY 2, 2017
The National Food Authority (NFA)
said it has approved the request of 210 traders to import rice, which would
come in at a higher duty under the minimum access volume (MAV) scheme.As of
December 21, 2016, the NFA has allowed 210 farmers’ organizations and private
firms to import 692,340 metric tons (MT) of rice, 110,160 MT less than the
country’s annual MAV of 802,500 MT.
The NFA list available on its web
site also showed that 194 qualified rice traders, including AgriNurture Inc.
and Pilmico Foods Corp., will import 642,340 MT of rice under the country
specific quota (CSQ). Of the total rice to be imported under the CSQ, 293,100
MT of rice will be bought from Thailand and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, 16 qualified
applicants will import a total of 50,000 MT of rice under the “omnibus origin”
category, according to the NFA list.Under the importation guidelines released
by the NFA, rice traders are allowed to source from countries with specific
quota and from omnibus origin or from any country.
Rice traders and farmers’ groups
can import 293,100 MT of rice from Thailand and Vietnam. They can also import
50,000 MT of rice from China, India and Pakistan; 15,000 MT from Australia; and
4,000 MT from El Salvador.
An additional volume of 50,000 MT is allowed to be imported from
any country.The NFA said it allows each organization or firm to import 20,000
MT.The rice imports by the qualified traders must arrive in the country not
later than February 28, according to the official guidelines of the
NFA.Currently, the government allows rice imports within the MAV scheme to
enter the country at a lower tariff of 35 percent. Imports in excess of the MAV
are slapped a higher tariff of 50 percent.
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/nfa-allows-groups-firms-to-import-rice/
RICE WORTH US$557.578MN EXPORTED IN FIVE MONTHS
Monday, 02 January 2017 15:32
ISLAMABAD: Rice export from the
country during first five months of current financial year was recorded at
1,316.44 million tons as compared to exports of the corresponding period of
last year.According the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics country earned
US$ 557.578 million by exporting rice during the period from July-November,
2016.The rice exports in first five months of last financial year was recorded
at 1,545.578 million tons valuing US$ 688.322 million tons, it added.During
first five months of current financial year, country earned US$ 132.110 million
by exporting 151,339 metric tons of basmati rice as against the exports of
202,334 metric tons worth US$ 19.777 of same period of last year.
Meanwhile, 1,164.651 metric tons
of rice other then basmati rice exported and earned US$ 245.468 million as
compared to 1,343,638 million of US$ 497.308 million of same period of last
year.On month on month basis, rice exports during the month of November, 2018
was recorded at 438,399 million tons valuing US$ 165.92 million as against the
exports of 5,339 metric tons worth US$ 203.844 million of same month of last
year.About 30,400 metric tons of basmati rice worth US$ 24.704 million exported
in months of November, 2016 as against 38,618 metric tons of US$ 32.986 million
of same month of last year.In month of November, 2016 exports of rice other
then basmati was recorded at 407,999 metric tons valuing US$ 141.216 million as
compared to exports of 501,129 metric tons worth US$ 170.858 million of same
month of last year
http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/business-a-economy/333639-rice-worth-us%24557578mn-exported-in-five-months.html
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