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Ghee, oil export

JAVED MEHMOOD

ISLAMABAD, March 5: Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) has demanded permission to export ghee and cooking oil to Iraq and Syria.

The Association, in its meeting with the Minister for Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood last week, maintained that there is a vast potential of ghee and cooking oil export to these countries which can be exploited by the local manufacturers, sources told Business Recorder here on Friday.

The Minister, however, has asked the manufacturers to first work out whether or not the export of these edible items was feasible and also provide these details to the Ministry for proper decision.

Razak Dawood made it clear to the PVMA that his Ministry would allow the export of ghee and cooking oil only if their export would be profitable.

During meeting the Minister outrightly rejected PVMA's demand of levying duty on the import of oilseed. The Association maintained in the meeting that the duty-free import of oilseed was causing loss to government, local industry and farmers as well.

However, the representatives of All Pakistan Solvent Extractors Association, who also attended the meeting, defended the import of oilseed while claiming that the country has saved million of dollars by reducing import of palm and soyabean oil following duty-free import of oilseed and local production of canola and sunflower crops.

The Federal Minister agreed with the viewpoint of the solvent extractors and said that the government would encourage the local production of edible oil-based crops in order to reduce dependency on the imported soyabean and palm oil in future.

Statistics show the country has saved $163.647 million in first seven months of the current fiscal. Edible oil import amounted to $244.365 million during July-January, 1999-2000, against $408.012 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

J mehmood