KARACHI, Sept 11: The wholesale prices of various rice varieties have fallen sharply after the stockists flooded the markets with the commodity in view of its declining prices on the world markets turning exports less attractive.

However, the retail shopkeepers have not passed on the impact of falling wholesale prices to the consumers in the last one and a half months.

Karachi Wholesaler Grocers Association (KWGA) Chairman Anis Majeed told Dawn on Thursday that the price of Super Basmati had dropped to Rs80 from Rs100-110 per kg a month back, while the Irri-6 and Irri-9 varieties had come to Rs32 and Rs40 from Rs45 and Rs55 per kg respectively. Similarly, the rice-386 had fallen sharply to Rs48 from Rs84 per kg.

He said that the Vietnam and Thailand had started offering low prices to the buyers in world markets after the arrival of new crops. As a result, the prices of commodity in world markets had also crashed and its impact had also been felt in the local markets.

Mr Anis expressed surprise that the government had indicated to allow export of surplus one million tons of rice in view of likely bumper crop of 6.5 million tons this year as compared to 5.5 million tons last year.

He said that the exporters could only decide about foreign sales of the commodity instead of the government. “It is premature to send this filler in the markets when only Irri-6 crop has started arriving in the market while the basmati will find its way next month.”

“The government had intervened in wheat by giving different production figures and ultimately the consumers had to suffer who were still paying much higher prices for various flour varieties,” he recalled.

Meanwhile, the city government had issued a Ramazan price list in which the retailers had succeeded in manoeuvring the rice prices which are much higher from the actual prevailing rates in the markets.

Retailers continue charging Rs120-125 per kg for Kernal Basmati as against its official price of Rs113 per kg. Similarly the kernel basmati rate had been fixed at Rs88 per kg but retailers are demanding Rs90-100 per kg.

Mr Anis said that the government still maintained the minimum export price (MEP) of super basmati at $1,500 per ton while its actual price in world markets had fallen to $1,200 per ton. The price of basmati had come down to $1,000 per ton while its MEP was still tagged at $1,300 per ton.

He urged the government to remove the MEP on these two varieties. The government had already removed the MEP on non-basmati rice.

Meanwhile, a group of small rice exporters had said that the government had not abolished the MEP on super basmati and basmati rice due to pressure from the big rice exporters.

These exporters had been availing huge export refinance facilities from the State Bank of Pakistan and had stocked big quantities and were not willing to part with their stocks at the lower prices, the small exporters maintained.

They said that banks would be in a mess when the new crop would arrive and prices would further drop due to bumper crop.

They urged the Commerce Ministry to take note of the fact that the buyers were well aware of the prevailing rice prices due to the networking and were bargaining with the exporters of basmati rice who were selling below the MEP and returning the difference through other channels.

They added while big exporters had overseas accounts, the SME exporters were not in a position to remit the difference in the amounts and were unable to conclude transactions below the MEP fixed on basmati by the government.

Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG) General Secretary Farid Qureishi said that the retailers were not lifting the new crop of rice and they had old stocks of various varieties which had been purchased on higher rates.

He added that consumers also demanded old rice rather than new crop. “It will take at least one month when consumers will see reduction in rice prices”.