LAHORE – As many as 15 new companies have been registered for exporting rice to the Russian Federation, opening a new window for increasing exports of the country.
Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia has informed the Department of Plant Protection (DPP), Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Pakistan about registration of 15 more rice establishments.
The Russian Federation had put a ban on rice import from Pakistan in 2019 on pest interception in the consignment.
However, it lifted ban in 2021 after corrective measures taken by DPP in the rice establishments with respect to sanitary and phytosanitary. But it approved only four compliant rice mills on the basis of inspection report of its technical delegation and asked for additional information and measures for the registration of remaining facilities.
DPP took steps to upgrade 15 more rice mills by implementing Standard Guidance Document as per requirements of the Russian Federation.
DPP guidance and repeated technical compliance audits enabled these companies to improve food safety and phytosanitary measures besides quality, storage and packaging.
Now, 19 enterprises from Pakistan can export rice to Russian Federation.
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan has welcomed the latest development, saying it was good news for the growers in Punjab and Sindh who would now get good return for their produce.
Moreover, Pakistan being the agrarian economy can also look for enhancing exports to other countries by further improving quality standards as per global market requirements. Up-gradation of more rice processing facilities are in pipeline with DPP, to make them at par with international standards in order to achieve major shares in high end markets of Asia, Europe, USA and Australia and obtain their registration for export to Russia also.
