By Syed Mussarat Khalil
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Mian Mehmood, President of Pak-Saudi Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PSJCCI), praised Saudi Arabia›s Vision 2030, saying it is a great vision and we are fully supporting it.
He was talking to media at Biryani dinner hosted by the Pakistan Consulate Jeddah for the Saudi buyers at Park Hayat hotel on Sunday.
He said “Saudi Arabia is our major trading partner in food sector and imports over $1 billion worth of rice every year, making great opportunity for our rice exporters and Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) to further increase the share of Pakistani rice in this market.”
He said if we want to cover the GCC countries also, we should make processing plant inside Saudi Arabia, have packaging facilities and quality control as well.
He said the Chambers of both countries are playing a very vital role in promoting trade in all sectors between the two countries.
At the dinner, the Saudi buyers appreciated the supreme quality unique aroma and taste of Pakistani rice. Pakistani rice is part not only of Asian cuisine, but rather equally famous for its long size and aroma in the Arabian and Continental cuisines.
Earlier, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) and JCCI signed an MoU for long-term institutional collaboration between the two organizations. In the MoU signing ceremony, Sheikh Mahzen Batterjie, Vice Chairman, Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), along with the members of the Food Committee of JCCI, welcomed the rice exporters’ delegation from Pakistan, According to Arshad Munir Consular (Press) at Consulate General Pakistan, Batterjie said such bilateral visits are necessary to increase the bilateral trade, commerce and investment between both the countries and signing of this MoU would be a milestone towards achieving this objective. He assured complete support of JCCI toward efforts of the consulate for achieving this goal.
Buoyed up by an encouraging response, Shah Jahan Malik, Vice Chairman REAP, who is heading the delegation from Pakistani, exuded confidence that they would be able to increase their share in the Saudi market. The delegation was very confident that the visit was fruitful and they would be able to meet their objective.
The exporters were in Jeddah on the first leg of their visit to the Kingdom. The 14-member joint delegation of Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) and Pak-Saudi Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PSJCCI is visiting Saudi Arabia on May 11-19, 2017, as part of trade promotion activities to increase export of rice to Saudi Arabia.
The delegation members visited the major supermarkets/hypermarkets and had meetings with their top management along with their meetings with major Saudi rice importers of the Western Region, in one-on-one business networking session organized by the Consulate of Pakistan.
Shehryar Akbar Khan, Consul General of Pakistan, appreciated the initiative taken by the Rice Exporters of Pakistan, and said that the country was constantly striving to improve its technological and agricultural capacity to increase volume of its rice exports in the face of stiff competition from its competitors and its rice quality matches the highest international standards.
He expressed the hope that the exporters will fully utilize the opportunities being offered by the Saudi market and take the rice export trade trajectory upward in the near future.
