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SOUTH ASIA INVESTOR REVIEWS O U T H A S I A I N V E S T O R R E V I E W I S F O C U S E D O N R E P O R T I N G , A N A L Y Z I N G A N D D I S C U S S I N G T H E E C O N O M Y A N D T H E F I N A N C I A L M A R K E T S O F C O U N T R I E S I N
S O U T H A S I A , I N C L U D I N G P A K I S T A N , B A N G L A D E S H A N D S R I L A N K A . F O R I N V E S T O R S L O O K I N G T O I N V E S T I N E M E R G I N G M A R K E T S B E Y O N D B R I C
C O U N T R I E S ( B R A Z I L , R U S S I A , I N D I A A N D C H I N A ) , T H I S B L O G I S D E S I G N E D T O H E L P I N T E R N A T I O N A L I N V E S T O R S L O O K I N G T O L E A R N A B O U T I N V E S T I N G
I N S O U T H A S I A W I T H F O C U S O N P A K I S T A N . R I A Z H A S A N O T H E R B L O G C A L L E D H A Q ' S M U S I N G S A T H T T P : / / W W W . R I A Z H A Q . C O M
S U N D A Y , J A N U A R Y 2 3 , 2 0 1 1
High Food Prices Boost Pakistan's Rural Economy
Since taking the reins of power almost three years ago, the coalition
government in Islamabad, which is led by the Pakistan Peoples' Party, has
been increasing the support prices of wheat and other agricultural
commodities every year. This policy has had the following effects:
1. It is transferring the additional new income of about Rs. 300 billion in the
current fiscal year alone to the ruling party's power base of landowners in
small towns and villages, from those working in the urban industrial and
service sectors.
2. It has driven up food prices dramatically for all Pakistanis, particularly
hurting the poor people the most.
3. It has reduced government tax revenues because the agricultural income
is not taxed by either the federal or the provincial governments, and
resulted in growing budget deficits.
4. It has significantly increased demand for consumer and industrial goods
and services in the rural areas.
5. It has forced the State Bank of Pakistan to maintain a tight monetray
policy which is drying up the much-needed credit for the industries and the
average consumers alike.
6. It's likely to slow rural-to-urban migration and relieve pressure on major
cities and their inadequate infrastructure.
In 2008, the government pushed the procurement price of wheat up from
Rs. 625 per 40 kg to Rs. 950 per 40 kg. This action immediately triggered
inflationary pressures that have continued to persist as food accounts for
just over 40% of Pakistan's consumer price index. According to State Bank
of Pakistan (SBP) analysis, cumulative price of wheat surged by 120 per
cent since 2008, far higher than the 40 per cent between 2003 and 2007. it
is also many times greater than the international market price increase of
22 per cent for wheat in the same period. Similarly, sugar prices have
surged 184 per cent higher since 2008, compared with 46 per cent increase
during 2003-07.
The transfer of additional Rs. 300 billion to Pakistan's agriculture sector
during the current fiscal year 2010-2011 by higher prices of agriculture
produce and direct flood compensation to 1.6 million affected families at the
rate of one hundred thousands rupees each will boost economic confidence
in the countryside. It will generate rural demand for consumer items
including consumer durables such as fans, TVs, motorcycles, cars,
refrigerators, etc.
The big feudal landowners have been the biggest beneficiaries of the PPP's
gift of high crop prices. However, the policy has helped small farmers as
well, as shown by a recent survey reported byThe Nation newspaper. The
survey of 300 farmers in Sind's Sukkur district was conducted by Sukkur
Institute of Business Administration for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). It
has highlighted the following about district's rural economy:
1. In Sukkur district, majority of the farmers are subsistence farmers. 31
percent of them own less than 5 acres of land, and another 34 percent own
up to 12.5 acres of land.
2. They spend an average of Rs. 1,611 a month on their children's
education, with some of them spending up to Rs. 12,000 a month.
3. Wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane are the major crops being cultivated
by 93 per cent, 58 percent, 37 percent and 12 percent of the respondent
farmers in that order.
4. 24 percent of them are also growing fruits including dates, mangoes and
bananas.
5. 22 percent of the respondent own livestock.
6. About half (49 percent) use privately purchased seeds for wheat
cultivation, 33 perecent use their own retained seed and 18 perecent use
the seed purchased from Public Sector Seed Corporations.
7. On average, a farmer uses 96.73 Kg chemical fertilizer per acre with the
maximum and minimum of 350 Kg and 40 Kg respectively. The average per
acre cost of wheat production is Rs. 10,670.
8. All 300 farmers are using tractors for cultivation and preparing land for
crops, and some are using tractors for fetching their crop produce to
market.
Already, the upside of the government policy is that Pakistan's rural
economy is being spurred by high crop prices that may help the GDP
growth this year and next. Increased farm incomes are whetting the rural
households' appetite for industrial and consumer goods in 2011 and beyond.
A key indicator of growing rural economy is the double digit increase in the
sale of tractors. Millat Tractors Limited, the largest supplier of tractors in
Pakistan, had record sales of 41,500 tractors in the calendar year 2010, an
increase of nearly 11% over 37,537 tractors sold in 2009. Of these 41,500
tractors, a record 5000 tractors were sold in the month of Dec, 2010 alone,
acording to The Nation newspaper. Millat sold 10,000 units under Benazir
Tractor Scheme and 5,000 units under the Sindh government tractor
scheme in the last fiscal year. Another 10,000 units were sold as part of the
Punjab government scheme, 70 per cent of the units were sold, according
to Dawn News.
Earlier, the sales of Fiat and Massey Ferguson tractors grew to 1,632 and
3,194 units in September 2010 from 537 and 3,100 in August 2010. The
overall sales of these tractors rose to 13,931 during July-September 2010 as
compared to 12,690 units in the same period of 2009, according to Dawn
news.
Over 50 per cent of the motorcycles and 40-45 per cent of cars in Pakistan
are purchased by people living in rural areas. Total car sales in July-
September 2010(including Suzuki Bolan) rose by 12 per cent to 30,030
units as compared to 26,812 units in the same period of 2009, according
to Pakistan Automotive Manufactureres Association PAMA). Furqan Punjani
of Topline Securities said car sales are expected to reach 154,000 units by
the end of June 2011.
In addition to rising demand for cars and tractors, there is also an upward
trend in two-wheeler sales. The cumulative sales of motorcycles in July-
September 2010 rose to 126,701 units from 105,862 units in the same
period of 2009.
While it is good to see Pakistan's rural farm economy perk up, it is also
important to recognize that the overall national economic outlook can not
improve significantly unless the growing budget deficits and rising inflation
are brought under control. And this will require the ruling feudal elite to
pitch in by paying their fair share of income tax on their rising farm
incomes. It is time for them to lead by example.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Pakistan's Exports and Remittances Rise to New Highs
Sugar Crisis in Pakistan
Agricultural Growth in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Pakistan's Rural Economic Survey
Pakistan's KSE Outperforms BRIC Exchanges in 2010
High Cost of Failure to Aid Flood Victims
Karachi Tops Mumbai in Stock Performance
India and Pakistan Contrasted in 2010
Pakistan's Decade 1999-2009
Musharraf's Economic Legacy
World Bank Report on Rural Poverty in Pakistan
USAID Report on Pakistan Food & Agriculture
Copper, Gold Deposits Worth $500 Billion at Reko Diq, Pakistan
China's Trade and Investment in South Asia
India's Twin Deficits
Pakistan's Economy 2008-2010
P O S T E D B Y R I A Z H A Q A T 8 : 5 1 A M
E M A I L T H I S B L O G T H I S ! S H A R E T O T W I T T E R S H A R E T O F A C E B O O K
L A B E L S : A G R I C U L T U R E , E C O N O M Y , F O O D , I N F L A T I O N , P A K I S T A N
8 5 C O M M E N T S :
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an agriculture survey in Pakistan, as reported byThe
Nation newspaper:
According to details, the total sample size was 300 respondents, five
farmers were selected randomly from each village to collect their
responses on the survey questions; at some villages 4 or 6 farmers
were selected randomly. In district Sukkur, majority of the farmers
comprise subsistence farmers as 31pc farmers of district are those
who own less than 5 acres of land, while about 34pc farmers holding
up to 12.5 acres of land.
Farmers, studied during survey, spend around Rs.1,611 monthly on
their children education, with the maximum amount of Rs. 12,000.
Farming is a major component of the district's rural economy as
almost all the respondents were engaged in farming. Wheat, rice,
cotton and sugarcane are the major crops being cultivated by 93pc,
58pc, 37pc and 12pc of the respondent farmers.
Around 24pc of the respondent farmers are also cultivating fruits
including dates, mangoes and bananas. Only 22pc of the respondent
farmers are rearing animal (livestock).
Almost half (49pc) of the farmers used privately purchased seeds for
wheat cultivation, 33pc of the farmers used their own retained seed
and 18pc of the farmers used the seed purchased from Public Sector
Seed Corporations.
On the average, a farmer used 96.73 Kg chemical fertilizer per acre
with the maximum and minimum of 350 Kg and 40 Kg respectively.
The average per acre cost of wheat production was Rs. 10,670/-,
based upon the average figures of cost given by respondents of the
survey.
All the respondent farmers are using tractor for cultivation and
preparing land for crops and few are using tractor for fetching their
crop produce to market.
JANUARY 23, 2011 10:43 AM
Riaz Haq said...
In terms of export potential, California argriculture industry offers a
model for developing nations.
Take almonds for example.
After making big investments in almonds in the past few years,
California farmers are seeing their efforts pay off with predictions
their recent harvest will be a record 1.65 billion pounds or more,
according to Businessweek.
The big harvest comes amid strong worldwide demand and relatively
high prices. Exports to China have increased eight times in the
past five years, and India and Pakistan doubled their almond
consumption in that time. Even with a record harvest, there's no
risk California, the world's No. 1 almond producer, will saturate the
market, industry experts said.
The Golden State has seen a big growth in almond orchards in the
past five years as farmers shifted from less profitable vegetables to
lucrative nuts. California now has 810,000 acres planted in almonds --
a 25 percent increase from a decade ago -- and produces 80 percent
of the world's supply. Spain is the second-biggest producer, but its
harvest is only a fraction of California's.
The state's most recent crop appeared uncertain after cold wind and
rain last spring partially disrupted pollination of the trees' pink and
white blooms. But recent forecasts from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture predicted a record crop with at least a 17 percent
increase from the previous year.
"The nut crops in general are looking good in California," said John
Edstrom, who recently retired after 26 years as a Colusa County farm
advisor. The market is generating "cautious optimism" among walnut,
pistachio and pecan growers as well, he said.
California farmers began shifting to almonds when increases in
fertilizer and other costs made it harder to make money on row crops,
such as tomatoes and onions. When almond prices spiked to more
than $2.80 per pound in 2006, growers leapt to plant 49,000 acres of
new trees. After five years, those trees are now bearing significant
fruit, contributing to the record 2010 harvest.
Improved agricultural techniques used by California's 6,000 almond
growers, such as planting trees closer together, cutting back on
pruning and knocking hollow shells off trees during winter to control
a debilitating pest called the navel orangeworm, also have helped
boost production, said Bruce Lampinen, an almond specialist at the
University of California, Davis.
Farmers said they are concerned about a loss of bees with major die-
offs in recent years. UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen said bees are
still available, though they are more expensive. The cost of renting
them has doubled to $150 per acre over the past five years.
Water shortages also have been a concern for some, although Almond
Board chairman Mike Mason said they haven't been so bad as to affect
the whole industry.
JANUARY 24, 2011 6:26 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here are some interesting excepts from a piece on Pakistanby Nancy
Birdsall of Center for Global Development:
------------U.S. policymakers should note well this series of events and
remember a simple lesson. Billions of dollars of U.S. assistance-and a
sustained diplomatic focus on the reform agenda-have not given the
United States the ability to dictate the outcomes of Pakistan's political
process. This is inconvenient for the United States, but not surprising.
For the United States and for other major donors in Pakistan, money
has never brought leverage.
Pakistan's energy sector demonstrates the difficulty in achieving the
kind of influence donor countries would like to have. For decades, the
World Bank and the Asian Development Bank-armed with sums
greater than the current Kerry-Lugar-Berman U.S. aid package-have
urged the Government of Pakistan to finally reduce the price subsidies
on electricity, to no avail. Time and again, project documents cite the
same problems, the donors recommend the same solutions, the
government of Pakistan promises to implement the same reform, the
government breaks (and donors lament) the same promises.
Meanwhile, the basic politics maintaining the status quo have not
changed-there are too many reaping the benefits of subsidized power,
and ordinary consumers feel they aren't getting service that warrants
paying more.
When Vice President Biden visited Islamabad this week, he promised
that the United States would "keep the entire commitment" of the
pledged $7.5 billion in Kerry-Lugar assistance. This assurance will
surely be welcomed by Pakistan, and it's a fair reflection of Pakistan's
short-term and long-term importance to U.S. interests. Adjusting
where and how aid is spent-including by taking the requests of the
Pakistani government into account-is necessary to respond to the real
needs on the ground. (On that note, we applaud the decision to put
$190 million into direct smartcard grants to help Pakistani flood
victims rebuild their lives). But U.S. policymakers should not expect
the aid money to give the United States greater influence on economic
reforms in Islamabad. This is not the point, nor the potential, of U.S.
aid.
----------
The key point is that certain aid projects can carry both direct
benefits (better services and infrastructure for the people of Pakistan)
and indirect benefits (incentives for the Pakistani political system to
achieve greater results with their existing resources). Here are a few
examples to consider: U.S. investments in energy generation and
transmission capacity can be linked to public commitments to raise
electricity tariffs only when brownouts have been reduced below an
announced benchmark. In this grand bargain, as service quality
improves, tariffs would go up, and another round of aid investments
would be delivered. In another case, U.S.-financed tools can be
deployed to help Pakistani citizens hold their government
accountable-with regular reports on simple indicators of development,
for example, or an easily accessible database of all development
projects funded from internal or external resources. Or a pilot Cash
on Delivery aid contract in one or more Pakistani provinces could put
levers in the hands of education reformers and help their ideas gain
traction.
JANUARY 25, 2011 7:29 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here are excerpts from a piece by Christine Fair on "What Pakistan
Did Right" in 2010 floods:
Arguably, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) is one of
the most important reasons why the floods claimed relatively fewer
lives than may have been expected, given the scale of the event. In
January, I met with the Director General Arif Mahmood and his team
in Islamabad. They walked me through, in painstakingly scientific
detail, how their organization saved lives in 2010, as they had done
before and as they will continue to do in the future.
-----------
Some six months have passed since the onset of the floods.
Surprisingly, many of the predicted disasters did not happen. Pakistan
did not have the predicted second wave of deaths in the camps for the
millions of internally displaced persons. Astonishingly, none of the
predicted epidemics (such as cholera) took place. Pakistan has even
managed to stave off the expected food insecurity.
-----------------
Pakistan's National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), headed by
Major General (Ret.) Nadeem Ahmed is part of the reason these
catastrophes were prevented. The NDMA, along with the four
Provincial Disaster Management Agencies, coordinated the massive
effort to rescue flood victims, establish camps for internally displaced
people, provide the victims with shelter, water and sanitation
facilities, food and other logistical requirements. The NDMA
coordinates with international donors and maintains a situation room
where staff track calls and resolve problems. In a country that
routinely sustains criticism for organizations that that underperform,
NDMA excels.
Some of the worst fears about lost crops have not materialized. While
many of Pakistan's fields have not been properly prepared for planting
this year, NDMA working with its domestic and international partners
was able to provide seeds to many cultivators. In many cases, they
simply flung the seed into the land once the water receded. Many of
these efforts are resulting in bumper crops. This was not expected in
September of 2010. To be sure, this is only the beginning and much
more needs to be done. But measures of this type helped stave off
some of the gravest outcomes expected.
----------------
There are still challenges. Complaints persist about corruption with
the pre-paid ATM cards (Watan cards) distributed to IDPs. In Sindh,
serious charges of corruption persist regarding the purchase of tents,
blankets, medicines and food for the flood-affected people. Reports
continue that food supplies are languishing in depots while IDPs go
without in Sindh. Indeed, the IDP camp I visited in near the office of
the District Coordination Officer for Dadu, was saddening. The
residents and the camp administrator claimed that there had been no
food distributed in a month.
-----------
Nonetheless, half a year after the floods devastated the country and
after most of the media has left the story behind, 20 million Pakistanis
still need help -- and they need help now. While Pakistan must expand
its own tax net to contribute to the long-term costs of rebuilding its
infrastructure and preparing for future disasters, the international
community should also continue to support immediate needs such as
winterization, food support and rehabilitation of the flood victims.
JANUARY 25, 2011 7:47 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Templeton Asset Management Ltd. is buying shares in Pakistan, the
worst-performing stock market globally this month (August 2010),
after the nation’s worst-ever floods prompted a sell-off, investor Mark
Mobius toldBusinessweek:
About 1,600 people have been killed and 20 million lost homes, farms
and livelihoods as heavy monsoon rains sent flood waters across the
South Asian nation. The disaster may cut Pakistan’s economic growth
in half, Finance Secretary Salman Siddique said Aug. 13, with
expansion falling as much as 2.5 percentage points short of a 4.5
percent target.
“There will be an impact on growth but company valuations are very,
very attractive now and therefore we continue to invest in Pakistan
despite all the negatives,” Mobius said in an interview in Singapore
yesterday. “The bottom line is that Pakistan is not going to go away.
We want to buy stocks that look cheap as prices come down as a
result of the flood.”
The Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index has dropped 8.7 percent this
month, the most among 93 benchmark indexes tracked by Bloomberg
globally. The gauge is valued at 7.1 times this year’s estimated
earnings, making it cheaper than any other Asian or emerging-market
benchmark index tracked by Bloomberg.
The Karachi index climbed as much as 1.2 percent, the most in a
month, and traded 0.7 percent higher to 9,604.65 as of 11:37 a.m.
local time on speculation that recent losses were excessive. The gauge
plunged 2.9 percent yesterday, the most in more than two months.
‘Oversold’
“The market was oversold from yesterday and news of Mark Mobius’s
plans to buy Pakistani Stocks because of their attractive valuations
supported overall market sentiments,” said Khurram Schehzad, head
of research at Invest Capital & Securities Ltd., in Karachi. “Local
investors are encouraged and realize the prospect of future gains.”
The World Bank yesterday pledged $900 million in financial support to
Pakistan, joining the United Nations, the U.S. and other countries in
providing aid.
Mobius, who oversees about $34 billion in developing-nation assets as
executive chairman of Templeton’s emerging markets group, said the
investment company favors banks and energy companies within
Pakistan. He didn’t identify any companies.
Templeton owned more than 5 percent of MCB Bank Ltd., the nation’s
biggest lender by market value, as of June 30, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg.
MCB gained 1.7 percent to 185.50 rupees today, trimming losses for
the year to 7.1 percent. Oil & Gas Development Co., Pakistan’s
biggest energy explorer, rose 1.3 percent, extending its 2010 gains to
23 percent.
JANUARY 27, 2011 12:03 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Pakistan has resumed wheat export after a bumper crop last year,
according to Tribune Express:
SINGAPORE: Pakistan has resumed wheat exports for the first time in
three years, selling cargoes to Bangladesh and Myanmar and more
deals are likely as the nation takes advantage of rising global prices
and surplus stocks at home, following last year’s bumper harvest.
The deals come as fears of global food inflation grow, with devastating
floods damaging crops in Australia, forecasts of US corn inventories
sliding to uncomfortable levels and dry weather hampering
production in Argentina.
Asia’s third largest wheat producer, Pakistan has sold 200,000-
500,000 tonnes mainly to Bangladesh and Myanmar and international
traders are taking positions for more deals after Islamabad lifted a
ban on overseas sales last month.
“Pakistani wheat is now competitive, they are actively selling cargoes
for the last one week or 10 days,” said one trader with an
international trading company in Singapore.
“Traders are taking positions in the domestic market to corner more
supplies for exports.”
The benchmark US wheat and corn climbed nearly 50 per cent in
2010 on tightening supplies of grains and recent price surge have
stoked worries over food inflation, already in double digits in Asia’s
top consumers China and India.
On Thursday, Chicago corn rose 1 per cent to its highest in 2-1/2
years, while soybeans were steady after 4 per cent gains in the
previous session, buoyed by a surprisingly steep reduction in global
supply of grains and oilseeds forecast by the US government. Wheat
has risen nearly 2 per cent in as many trading sessions.
Uncomfortable stocks, rising prices
US stockpiles of corn and soybeans will be drawn down to
uncomfortably thin levels this year, according to a government report
on Wednesday that sent grain prices soaring and added to concerns
over surging world food prices.
But Pakistan decided to allow the private sector to export wheat last
month, lifting a three-year ban after a bumper crop led to a market
surplus.
Pakistan in August deferred earlier plans to export 2 million tonnes of
surplus wheat after summer floods washed away at least 725,000
tonnes of the grain.
Traders have said that despite damages from summer floods, Pakistan
still has a surplus for export after a bumper crop of 23.86 million
tonnes in 2009/10 added to a carryover of 4.2 million tonnes from the
previous crop.
A Karachi-based trader said Pakistan has booked orders for about
500,000 tonnes of wheat and shipments had already started.
“Our traders have made deals for about 500,000 tonnes for January-
March shipment, and we expect more orders,” Javed Thara said.
“Most of our wheat went to Bangladesh.”
He said Pakistan could export more than 2 million tonnes of wheat in
the coming months.
Another Singapore dealer confirming the news, said deals for
Pakistani wheat were signed around $350-$370 a tonne, including
cost and freight. “It is 11.0 to 11.5 per cent protein content, perfect
for Bangladesh and Myanmar markets,” he said.
The sowing for the next crop in Pakistan has almost completed and
harvesting will begin in April. The government has set an output
target of 24 million tonnes for the 2010//11 crop.
JANUARY 27, 2011 10:43 PM
Riaz Haq said...
There seems to be consensus developing among Pakistani economists
that "prompt measures needed to control rising inflation", according
to a report in Daily Times:
LAHORE: Pakistan is fast heading towards higher inflation and to
overcome this grim scenario; improvement in governance coupled
with a drastic cut in expenditure and revenue generation is crucial.
The doom and gloom scenario needs an urgent handling. Good
governance, good policies, good institutions, good macroeconomic
management are the drivers of economic growth that have gone
dormant for quite some time. This was the crux of the speeches
delivered at Economic Dialogue 2011 held at Lahore Chamber of
Commerce and Industry on Tuesday. Senior economist Dr Akmal
Hussain said the country is facing its gravest economic crisis in
history after 1971. He said the economy is in deep recession, poverty
along with high inflation is a recipe for disaster.
Unfortunately, he added, the government has zero fiscal space. He
warned that Pakistan was heading towards higher inflation if
immediate improvement in governance is not accompanied with cut in
expenditure and substantial increase in revenue.
The former WB Executive Abid Hassan said that the institutional
decay has now started taking its toll and the government should take
appropriate measures on emergent basis to stop this decay. He said
that with every passing day the country is going deeper and deeper
into the economic mire. “Today we have reached a situation where
even an economic stimulus would not work. The government should
concentrate on tax collection and controlling unnecessary
expenditures. Unless and until these two measures are not taken, the
economy would not be able to be back on rails,” he said. The PIDE
Vice Chancellor Dr Rashid Amjad said that the present day doom and
gloom scenario could be changed by overcoming the acute energy
shortage being witnessed by the country. The issue of circular debt
needs to be taken care of by those sitting at the helm of affairs. “PSDP
has a multiplier effect on the employment and economy. It should not
be cut,” he said.
Former chief Economist Planning Commission Dr Pervaiz Tahir
blamed the political chaos for our economic woes and termed the
dictatorship democracy cycle as mother of all ills.
Energy sector expert Munawar Baseer, ex Executive committee
member Almas Hyder and LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik while
appreciating the input provided by the economists said that most of
the issues and challenges faced by the country are more of political.
The political leadership while realizing the sensitivity of the situation
should come up with a solid solution with close coordination with the
chambers. “The policies are being made in isolation without the
consultation of real stakeholders and that’s why the economic
situation today has become more complex and directionless,” he said.
The speakers said that the business community should be involved for
the sake of correct decision-making.
They urged the government to evolve a more realistic and pragmatic
framework by putting an end to inter-provincial disparity and the
disparities within the province. The government should re-do its
priority list and concentrate on the few areas that come on the top of
that priority list.
It is very unfortunate, the speakers said, that the country has become
the most inhospitable for both the local and the foreign investors for
security reasons.
“Our inability to reach a consensus on water issue and inability to tap
hydrocarbon potential of Balochistan has virtually pushed us to the
wall,” they said. staff report
FEBRUARY 4, 2011 6:42 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Thousands of Indian illegal immigrants are slipping into Texas from
Mexico, according to LA Times:
Reporting from Harlingen, Texas — Thousands of immigrants from
India have crossed into the United States illegally at the southern tip
of Texas in the last year, part of a mysterious and rapidly growing
human-smuggling pipeline that is backing up court dockets, filling
detention centers and triggering investigations.
The immigrants, mostly young men from poor villages, say they are
fleeing religious and political persecution. More than 1,600 Indians
have been caught since the influx began here early last year, while an
undetermined number, perhaps thousands, are believed to have
sneaked through undetected, according to U.S. border authorities.
Hundreds have been released on their own recognizance or after
posting bond. They catch buses or go to local Indian-run motels before
flying north for the final leg of their months-long journeys.
"It was long … dangerous, very dangerous," said one young man
wearing a turban outside the bus station in the Rio Grande Valley
town of Harlingen.
The Indian migration in some ways mirrors the journeys of previous
waves of immigrants from far-flung places, such as China and Brazil,
who have illegally crossed the U.S. border here. But the suddenness
and still-undetermined cause of the Indian migration baffles many
border authorities and judges.
The trend has caught the attention of anti-terrorism officials because
of the pipeline's efficiency in delivering to America's doorstep large
numbers of people from a troubled region. Authorities interview the
immigrants, most of whom arrive with no documents, to ensure that
people from neighboring Pakistan or Middle Eastern countries are not
slipping through.
There is no evidence that terrorists are using the smuggling pipeline,
FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials said.
The influx shows signs of accelerating: About 650 Indians were
arrested in southern Texas in the last three months of 2010 alone.
Indians are now the largest group of immigrants other than Latin
Americans being caught at the Southwest border.
FEBRUARY 6, 2011 7:48 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an interesting assessment of Pakistan's economy in 2H-2010:
...“The country’s exports, money sent by overseas Pakistanis, balance-
of-payments position and foreign exchange reserves have reflected an
encouraging growth during July-December FY11, showing strong
signs of improvement in the economy,” Saad-bin-Naseer, CEO of Pearl
Capital, told Central Asia Online January 28. Pakistan’s exports were
$10.97 billion, an increase of US $1.88 billion, in the first six months
of FY11.
That 21% increase was a very positive sign for the growth of export-
oriented industry and the national economy, he said.
In FY11 exports could cross the $22 billion mark for the first time
because of a significant increase in the value of Pakistani products on
world markets, Naseer added.
“The textile industry had taken the lead by fetching $1.28 billion in
additional foreign exchange through exports,” Anisul Haq, secretary
of All Pakistan Textile Mills, told Central Asia Online.“The textile
industry had taken the lead by fetching $1.28 billion in additional
foreign exchange through exports,” Anisul Haq, secretary of All
Pakistan Textile Mills, told Central Asia Online by telephone from
Lahore. “From July-December FY11 textile exports increased to $6.28
billion” compared to 2010 figures.
Total annual textile exports could exceed $13 billion for the first time,
he added. In 2009-10, they totalled $10.5 billion.
“The textile industry had taken the lead by fetching $1.28 billion in
additional foreign exchange through exports,” Anisul Haq, secretary
of All Pakistan Textile Mills, told Central Asia Online.
---------
Another pillar of the economy is remittances from overseas Pakistanis.
The money they sent home increased by $780m in the first half of
FY11, to $5.3 billion, Haq said.
“We hope the country would receive $11 billion from overseas
Pakistanis in 2010-11 with major increase in inflows from Pakistanis
staying in Arab countries and other western countries,” Haq said.
Foreign aid from institutions and countries, not just individuals,
helped. The disbursement of $633m in coalition support and the
extension that the IMF gave the government for imposing the
Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) helped improve some of the
major economic indicators, Naseer said.
The picture did much to bolster Pakistan’s balance sheet, which has
had its ups and downs. Pakistan recorded a current account surplus in
the first six months of the fiscal year, which enabled growth in foreign
exchange reserves and stabilised the dollar-rupee exchange rate,
Pearl Capital’s Naseer added.
In 2009-10, the country incurred a $2.5 billion current account deficit
from July-December, but for the same period in 2010-11 it enjoyed a
surplus of $26m – a dazzling switch from red ink to black, he said.
The robust performance of exports and remittances enabled Pakistan
to accrue a record $17.3 billion in foreign exchange reserves by
January 21, he said.
Investor confidence has grown in response to these positive
indicators. The stock market capitalisation grew to $36 billion in
January 2011 from $32 billion in October 2010, he said, adding that
such growth would encourage foreign and local investment.
-----
warned.
Islamabad, which still hasn’t imposed the RGST the IMF wants,
doesn’t collect enough taxes, Khan said. It levies only about 9% of
GDP against the required international standard of a minimum 15%
tax-to-GDP ratio, Khan said.
The government must implement tax reform, reduce reliance on
borrowing from the IMF and generate its own resources to enhance
tax revenues and to bolster economic growth, he added.
Serious efforts to solve chronic gas and power shortages are also
imperative, he said.
FEBRUARY 11, 2011 5:34 PM
Riaz Haq said...
With rising cotton and yarn prices, Pakistan has the potential to
export $50 billion in textiles, according to a report in Gulf Today:
KARACHI: Pakistan has a potential of at least $50 billion in value-
added textile exports if human resource in this sector is fully
developed, said Textile Commissioner Muhammad Idrees.
Addressing the closing ceremony of 9th round of apparel
manufacturing and management training programme at the
Readymade Garments Technical Training Institute, the official said
that the present volume of exports was not at all satisfactory.
The stakeholders could easily double this volume by improving skills
of workers and through compliance with the standards of buyers, he
added.
The skills development programme comprised one-month training,
which covered cutting, sewing, production management, industrial
engineering and quality control. Experts and consultants from
Technopak, a world renowned consultancy firm, were hired for the
training.
Thirty-one master trainers or middle management professionals from
Artistic Milliners, Naz Textiles, Rajby Industries and Selimpex
International and Soorty Enterprises attended the ninth round of
training project.
The training project has so far been successfully implemented in 30
factories in Sindh and has trained 279 master trainers/middle
management professionals and 3,693 workers.
The project delivered complete training system, course curriculum,
manuals and consulting guidelines to the factories. Training manuals
are also translated into Urdu language to transfer appropriate
knowledge and skills to workers.
Pakistan’s textile sector is optimistic about meeting the annual export
target, as high cotton prices in domestic and international markets
have caused an increase in prices of value-added textile products,
industry people say.
The government had fixed the textile export target at $14 billion for
the current fiscal year. Members of the textile sector are of the view
that achieving the target is possible, as exports of highly value-added
items such as knitwear and garments have increased in terms of
value.
Statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) show the
textile sector has performed well in the first half (July to December) of
the current fiscal year, as its exports increased by 25.79 per cent as
compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
The industry, however, believes they would need to import up to five
million bales of cotton because the 11 million bales produced so far in
the country will not meet the requirements as some of the crop has
been destroyed by flood.
The industrialists also expressed reservations about gas shortage in
the country that has already caused a huge loss to the industry,
particularly in Punjab. All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills
Association Chairman Maqsood Ahmad Butt stressed that cotton
prices reached Rs13,000 per maund (37.324 kg) and the sector may
face a shortage of cotton in June if India did not lift the ban on
exports.
“There is a possibility that exports will cross $14 billion target if
cotton shortages are met and gas supply is restored,” he opined.
FEBRUARY 14, 2011 10:28 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Rising crop prices in the US are helping economic recovery in the
farm belt and lifting the value of farmland in the Midwest, according
to the Wall Street Journal:
Farmland values in much of the Midwest are climbing at their fastest
rates since the 2008 boom, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
said Tuesday.
Fueled by rising crop prices, the value of irrigated and nonirrigated
cropland across the region known as the 10th District jumped 14.8%
and 12.9%, respectively, in the fourth quarter, compared with a year
earlier.
The bank's quarterly survey of the region, which covers western
Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado and
northern New Mexico, found that farmland prices rose for the fifth
consecutive quarter since a drop in the third quarter of 2009, when
the livestock sector was contracting amid the recession.
The Federal Reserve's regional banks closely track farm real-estate
prices because they are a key indicator of the health of U.S. farming,
which uses about half of the nation's land. Land is farming's largest
asset and source of collateral, which means any increase in value lifts
farmers' borrowing power.
The Federal Reserve Banks in Chicago and Minneapolis have yet to
issue their quarterly surveys, but their reports are also expected to
show that the farm belt is continuing to rebound from the recession
more quickly than the general economy, which has been hobbled by
high unemployment rates and weak home values.
Farmland prices in the 10th District are generating their biggest
gains since the third quarter of 2008, when prices of irrigated
farmland jumped 23.4% and prices of nonirrigated farmland rose
21.2%.
Still, it's not clear how long farmland prices can continue to climb so
sharply. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has already said it's
watching for whether an asset bubble is building. One red flag in
Tuesday's report is that cash rental rates for cropland across the 10th
District rose only about 6% in the fourth quarter, far too little to
justify such a big increase in land prices.
As a result, some farm bankers across the region are beginning to
tighten their standards on real estate loans.
"Bankers in the survey were starting to raise questions about the
sustainability of farmland values" and "paying closer attention to their
loan-to-value ratios," said Brian Briggeman, an economist at the
Omaha branch of the Kansas City Fed.
Farmland prices are heavily influenced by crop prices, which were
climbing until the financial crisis and recession popped the
commodity-price bubble in late 2008. Led by wheat, U.S. crop prices
resumed their upward climb in June 2010 amid harvest problems in
places such as Russia, and then the U.S. corn belt, as demand was
recovering in the world's emerging economies.
The prices of corn and wheat grown in the Midwest are about double
what they were a year ago, while cotton prices are up 155%. Soybean
prices have climbed 50%. Those high commodity prices are giving
farmers more money to spend on land, as well as attracting the
interest of outside investors looking for an inflation hedge at a time
when the cost of borrowing money for buying real estate is low.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said Monday that it expects net farm
income, a widely followed barometer of the U.S. agriculture sector's
profitability, to climb 19.8% this year to $94.7 billion, which would be
the second-highest inflation-adjusted figure for net farm income in 35
years.
FEBRUARY 16, 2011 9:24 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a report in The News on how Pakistan's Engro company sees
the economy:
KARACHI: Engro Corporation remains unsure about Pakistan’s
economic trajectory as the country battles militants and tries to
contain a growing fiscal deficit, a top company official said on
Tuesday.
“Nobody knows what will happen in the coming months,” said Ruhail
Mohammad, Engro’s Chief Financial Officer. “I have my numbers
worked out. I know where sales and profit will be. But things are
changing so fast that being sure remains almost impossible.”
Political and economic events of the past six months that saw the
government retreating on key reforms such as raising taxes and
cutting borrowing from the central bank have left businesses without
a firm outlook, he said.
Although Engro posted a 79 percent rise in yearly profit to Rs6.8
billion in 2010, it continues to face problems, he said. “The policy of
gas curtailment to fertiliser-makers is unjustified. The government has
given us a commitment for uninterrupted supply, especially for the
new plant.”
Expansion of Engro’s flagship fertiliser plant completed last year. The
corporation can now produce 2.3 million tons of urea annually.
Mohammad, who was briefing journalists a day after the
announcement of corporation’s financial results, said that Engro has
no problem with increase in the price of gas that is used for making
fertilisers. “The government must increase the price of fertiliser. We
have been saying it for the last two years,” he said. “The agricultural
products such as cotton, rice and wheat have seen a substantial
increase in price. Farmers have the capacity to absorb rise in cost of
urea.”
He, however, said that contractual obligations must not be breached
once it comes to the additional capacity of 1.3 million tons, which the
corporation has recently added. “For this project, we were offered gas
at concessional rates for making the investment.”
The price of feedstock gas, which is used for making fertiliser, is
subsidised by the government through a controversial method of
making textile and other industries pay a higher price for the fuel.
This has been a bone of contention for years.
“The government will be giving Rs37 billion in subsidy on urea in
2011,” he said. “There is no justification for this at all.”
On the other hand, curtailment of gas, which is basically a raw
material for fertiliser, brings down production and leaves the
manufacturers with no option but to raise prices to make up for the
lost sales, he said.
He said the corporation plans to list Engro Foods, Engro Energy and
Fertilisers at the stock exchange this year.
Mohammad said that work on Engro Energy’s venture into mining of
coal at Tharparkar, Sindh, for power generation continues. “China is
showing a lot of interest in the project. Financing won’t be an issue.”
The corporation will need between $300 million and $350 million for
the Thar project by the end of 2012, he said.
“We have been cited as a heavily indebted group but if you look at the
books closely we generate Rs35 cash for every Rs100 of debt. I think
that gives us a lot of room to easily pay off the loans.”
FEBRUARY 16, 2011 12:19 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Pakistan govt has distributed Rs 28.6 billion among flood victims,
according to Daily Times:
ISLAMABAD: Government of Pakistan has distributed Rs 28.6 billion
among 1.483 million flood-affected families through NADRA’s Watan
Card — each card has Rs 20000 cash assistance.
Deputy Chairman NADRA, Tariq Malik stated this while briefing the
UN delegation headed by Margareta Wahlstrom, Special
representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction
who visited NADRA Headquarters today for briefing on Flood Relief
System.
Tariq Malik while elaborating the overall progress said that in Punjab,
608,824 flood-hit families received Rs 11.96 billion while in Sindh
558,997 families received Rs 10.11 billion. In Baluchistan
Rs 1.85 billion have been distributed among 102,945 families and Rs
3.8 billion were disbursed among 199,414 families in the province of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said in AJK and Gilgit Baltistan
Rs 188,450,000 distributed among 10,173 families and Rs 61,626,000
given to 3,263 families respectively.
He said the selection of beneficiaries is one of the most contentious
aspects of any post disaster cash transfer programs in various
countries. “NADRA walked extra miles as our aim was to protect the
most vulnerable among the flood victims like women household,
widows, special persons and minorities,” he told.
He told 120,081 Watan Cards were given to the households headed by
women folks in the remotest areas of Pakistan — and 11,746 Watan
Cards were given to minorities notified by the provinces.
Emphasising on Grievances Redressal System, Tariq Malik explained
that 3.2 million people visited Watan Card centers, 335,044
complaints were received and NADRA has verified that 167,063 were
eligible of Watan Cards of which around 155,000 have been given
Watan Cards.
Fifty percent (50%) of the complaints were not genuine as these
included people who already had received Watan Cards or their family
member had received Watan Card. “We are not closing complaints
redressal system, and would like to entertain all complaints on case to
case basis,” he added.
He urged the media, international donor agencies and NGOs to focus
on facts and real data, not on anecdotes or stereotypes or politically
motivated press reports aiming generalisation based on isolated
incidents.
Neva Khan, Country Director Oxfam, Madhavi Malagoda
ARIYABANDU, Regional Programme Officer, UN International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction were among the members of
delegation.
FEBRUARY 22, 2011 5:47 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a piece on "strategic philanthropy" in Pakistan as presented at
Asian Philanthropy Conference:
Zubair Bhatti’s conference paper for the APPC Hanoi Conference
shows many optimistic signs for the future of strategic philanthropy in
Pakistan. Of the estimated six million Pakistanis living outside
Pakistan, around 3.9 million sent home a total of US$5.5 billion from
2006 to 2007—through formal banking channels. The Ministry of
Labor and Overseas Pakistanis even placed the estimated remittances
at some US$8 billion—contributed by around 7 million persons “of
Pakistani origin.”
And this isn’t even the good news yet. Even more positive is the
observation that these remittances, and the philanthropic purposes
for which they are sometimes allocated, are beginning to be “aimed at
long-term social change,” showing the relative maturity of overseas
Pakistanis when it comes to strategic giving. According to Bhatti:
“Strategic giving is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan. Among the
Muslims of the subcontinent, a proud tradition of philanthropy as an
instrument of social change has long co-existed with the dominant
impulse of helping the poor.” At present, more signs are pointing
towards the giving public’s preference for institutional, if not
strategic, methods and channels for giving. These include the
following:
• The rising number of NGOs, as well as the increasing visibility of
their work and their fund-raising activities;
• The proliferation of major advertisements on billboards,
newspapers, and TV screens showing charitable organisations and
their campaigns;
• The increasing willingness of donors to allocate their donations,
including Zakat, to organisations “rather than to the poor in the family
or immediate locality according to the traditional interpretation of
Zakat;”
• The growing interest in corporate social responsibility among
wealthy businessmen;
• American Pakistanis’ utilisation of personal foundations and funding
organisations in allocating and disbursing large sums of money
toward charitable causes; and
• The large percentage of funds being raised by local Pakistani NGOs
from the diaspora community.
Bhatti cites several “drivers of change” in this shift toward a more
strategic philanthropic perspective in Pakistan. First is the
observation that overseas Pakistanis “are more educated, more
aware, more affluent... than Pakistanis back home... [They] have seen
the role of strategic philanthropy in [more advanced] societies.”
Next is the aging population of first-generation Pakistani emigrants
and their propensity to be involved in charitable activities given their
affluence, their prominence, and the amount of free time they have on
their hands. Related to this is the rise in status of medical
professionals who left Pakistan in the 1970s to study in medical
colleges, and who now find themselves in a position “where they can
use their financial resources and contacts to mobilize funds for their
alma mater and other related social causes.”
As the population of Pakistani professionals in other countries
matures and reaches out, so does the maturity and reach of its
professional associations. Bhatti shares that, in the United States, the
Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent in North America
(APNAA)—a 10,000-strong organisation—supports strategic
philanthropy through health and education initiatives in rural areas.
Also in the Unites States, “the growing size of remittances...
represents greater opportunities for organized fund-raising.”
FEBRUARY 24, 2011 10:03 AM
Riaz Haq said...
News about 2010-2011 budgets in South Asia:
The BBC is reporting that "the budget deficit has reduced to 5.1% of
GDP this fiscal year, down from more than 6%. The plan is to cut this
to 4.6% next year".
Pakistan's budget deficit for first six months of 2010-2011 stood at
2.9%, up from 2.7% last year, according to CNBCand Reuters.
KARACHI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Pakistan's budget deficit for the first six
months of the 2010/11 fiscal year (July-June) was 2.9 percent of gross
domestic product, the Finance Ministry said on its Web site
(www.finance.gov.pk) on Monday. This compared with a deficit of 2.7
percent in the same period last year. In the October-December
quarter, the deficit eased to 1.3 percent from 1.6 percent in the
preceding quarter. Analysts said the lower second-quarter deficit was
largely due to payments by the United States for logistical support
provided by Pakistan in the war against Islamist militants. In
November 2010, Pakistan agreed with the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) that it would keep the country's budget deficit at 4.7
percent for the 2010/11 fiscal year. However, analysts agree Pakistan
will likely overshoot this figure. Some forecast the deficit to be around
8 percent, higher than the central bank's prediction of between 6.0
and 6.5 percent, if fiscal reforms are not implemented. The original
target of 4 percent was revised following the devastating summer
floods, which caused around $10 billion in damages.
FEBRUARY 28, 2011 9:15 AM
Riaz Haq said...
World Food Program Pakistan director says food prices too high in
Pakistan, according to AFP:
GENEVA — Pakistan's government has pushed food prices too high
for an impoverished population, as malnutrition levels rise despite the
recovery of crops after devastating floods, a UN food relief official
said Wednesday.
Wolfgang Herbinger, director for the World Food Programme (WFP)
in Pakistan, said food crops especially wheat in the southern flood-hit
plains were recovering fast with the prospect of decent crops over the
coming weeks.
"The crop outlook is not bad but the food security situation remains
difficult because prices remain so high," he told journalists one the
sidelines of humanitarian meetings in Geneva.
"The government is the biggest buyer of wheat in Pakistan they are
setting the farm gate price and they dominate market," Herbinger
explained.
"That's why the wheat price in Pakistan didn't adjust when, for
example, in 2009 and early 2010 the wheat price had gone back a lot,
it stayed high to the detriment of local consumers."
Now ordinary consumers pay double the price for wheat compared to
three years ago and the food security situation has "changed
dramatically," the WFP official added.
Malnutrition levels in the southern province of Sindh have reached 21
to 23 percent, according to the agency.
"That is well above African standards. The emergency standard is 15
percent," the WFP official said.
A recent survey found that in some flood-hit areas 70 percent of
people were taking out loans and even using them to pay for food.
Herbinger admitted that the WFP was "struggling a bit" to bring the
message across to authorities.
"You may have the country full with food but people are too poor to
buy it," he explained.
"We are working a lot with the Ministry of Agriculture to explain to
the minister that it is not enough to have enough production in the
country if people can't afford it."
"Maybe for political reasons he doesn't always understand it, that it's
one thing to be nice to the farmers but if your consumers can't afford
it then... there's something wrong with agricultural policy," Herbinger
added.
Massive floods caused by monsoon rains in July and August 2010
killed thousands, destroyed 1.7 million homes and damaged 5.4
million acres of arable land, experts have said.
MARCH 23, 2011 10:11 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's Pakistan PPP govt's defense of high wheat prices in Pakistan,
as reported by the BBC:
Lowering wheat prices would create food shortages in Pakistan and
encourage smuggling, officials say, responding to criticism from the
UN.
On Wednesday the UN's food relief agency said the government set
prices too high and malnutrition was rising.
But an official at Pakistan's food ministry told the BBC farmers would
simply switch to more lucrative crops if wheat prices went down.
Devastating floods across Pakistan in 2010 damaged acres of arable
land.
Although crop yields in 2011 are projected to be healthy, prices are
too high for an impoverished population, the director of the UN's
World Food Programme told journalists on the sidelines of
humanitarian meetings in Geneva on Wednesday.
"The crop outlook is not bad but the food security situation remains
difficult because prices remain so high," Wolfgang Herbinger said.
Smuggling risk
Malnutrition levels in the southern province of Sindh had reached
21% to 23%, according to the WFP.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
It is nearly impossible to stop smuggling across the Afghan border,
which is extremely porous”
End Quote Food and Agriculture ministry spokesman
"That is well above African standards. The emergency standard is
15%," Mr Herbinger said.
But lowering prices would do little to help the situation, an official at
the food and agriculture ministry, who wished to remain unnamed,
said.
He also warned that much of the crop would end up in the hands of
smugglers.
"Low farm-gate prices lead to lower acreage of wheat crop as farmers
switch to other crops and it works as an incentive for smugglers
seeking international prices in the neighbourhood.
"It is nearly impossible to stop smuggling across the Afghan border,
which is extremely porous," he said.
So if prices are lowered, the official said, the risk is that they would
eventually rise to even higher than the level they are currently set at.
In the 1990s and between 2007 and 2009 there were severe wheat
shortages across Pakistan, leading to extremely high prices.
Pakistani officials also say that malnutrition in Sindh province is not a
new phenomenon and is unrelated to the food supply.
"Government statistics show that food consumption has not gone
down despite the doubling of food prices since 2007-08," Kaisar
Bengali, advisor to Sindh's chief minister said.
A lack of public hygiene facilities and safe drinking water were more
important factors in child nutrition, he said.
"These are neglected areas, and there has been hardly any
development in the public health sector here in decades," Mr Bengali
said.
MARCH 24, 2011 9:23 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Flood Emergency Cash Transfer Project, designed to support the
Government of Pakistan’s Citizen’s Damage Compensation Program
(CDCP) in providing cash transfers to more than 1 million flood-
affected households, according to pkeconomist.com:
The project will also strengthen the management of the CDPC through
effective grievance redressal mechanisms and establishing control
and accountability measures to ensure efficient and transparent
delivery of the support.
“The 2010 floods were a disaster of historic proportions that affected
over 20 million people and created a massive recovery need,” said
Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.
“Households faced with income shocks often adopt coping strategies
that are not beneficial over time, including reducing assets and
consumption, increasing borrowing, and taking children out of school
to work. Therefore, cash assistance to flood-affected households is
essential to mitigate the adverse effects of income shocks besides
addressing the issue of poverty and vulnerability. Importantly, the
project will also assist in developing necessary capacities and systems
to effectively handle the similar disasters in the future.”
Launched in September 2010, the CDCP provided around 1.4 million
families with cash grants of PRs. 20,000 (approximately US$230) to
cover their immediate needs. The next phase, supported by this
project, will provide an additional payment of PRs. 40,000
(approximately US$460) to around 1.1 million most affected
households, thereby reaching between 7.5 and 8.3 million people to
rebuild their lives. To meet the total financing requirements for the
CDCP, the World Bank has worked closely with other development
partners, some of which (USAID and Italy) have already committed
funds.
“International evidence suggests that cash grants allow the recipients
the flexibility of choosing where to put their resources based on their
specific conditions and priorities.” said Iftikhar Malik, Co-Project
Team Leader. “Beneficiaries are expected to use these additional
grants to not only cover basic consumption but to also recapitalize
assets as well as recover their livelihoods.”
The World Bank is well placed to support the Government of Pakistan
in extending and strengthening the CDCP due to its substantial
international and regional experience in protecting the affected and
vulnerable through post-disaster cash transfer programs. In addition
to this operation, the Bank has assisted the Government in its flood
response through financing the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment and
making available US$300 million for fast-disbursing financing of
critical flood-related imports and US$20 million for highway
reconstruction.
The credit is from the International Development Association (IDA),
the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm. US$81 million of the
credit carries a 0.75% service charge, 10 years of grace period and a
maturity of 35 years. The remaining US$44 million has the same
terms plus a fixed interest charge of 3.2%.
APRIL 1, 2011 9:37 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here are some excepts from an Op Ed by Pak industrialist Yousuf
Shirazi of Atlas Group:
---
Pakistan’s mineral resources – oil, gas and copper, much less gold –
remain unexploited. Whatever the case, Pakistan is basically an
agricultural economy. Before Partition, the area now comprising
Pakistan had fed the entire India. Even now when the floods have
affected the crops, Pakistan is exporting rice and wheat. And the
cotton prices are so high that, together with wheat and rice prices –
reinforced by global revival – it has fed the entire rural area, with
unusual liquidity, so as to give a fillip to consumer demand seldom
seen before!
Pakistan’s major exports consist of textile, rice, leather goods, sports
goods, chemicals and carpets. More than 50 per cent of its export
earnings still come from textiles – now yarn being in the forefront.
Only if Pakistan focuses on agriculture in the right way can it replace
the import with export economy. The current year is expected to
record export of over $25 billion but, on the other hand, imports are
also expected to exceed exports – $35 billion at the close of the year.
The deficit finance – July-December FY10, $6.895 billion – is not any
pride whatsoever. The existing situation can be remedied through
exploration of mines and optimising agricultural growth and export
---------
In a situation like this, perhaps, the only course remains increased
reliance on aid, loans and credit, which, in essence, has been
worsening the economy. These loans and credits, in fact, help the
economies of the developed world more than the economies of the
developing countries. This is achieved through massive import – of
machinery, raw materials, if not food – the PL480 of the USA –
depriving the recipient countries of local investment, production and
export. This has been leading to unemployment and poverty from
which the developing countries traditionally suffer. The solution for
the developing countries lies in reliance on education, healthcare and
socio-economic infrastructure – more so in Pakistan.
---------
Socio-politico-economic harmony will depend, among others, on
development finance through development finance institutions like
PICIC and IDBP that provided long-term development finance. Now
there is none. The commercial banks are doing it, but not adequately
enough. It is not the job of commercial banks either. However, they
are not only providing development finance of whatever worth, but all
sorts of non-commercial banking – investment banking, leasing, to say
nothing of asset management, and mutual funds. Jack of all trades,
master of none. It is all at the cost of commercial banking, per se. The
regulators may take note of it. The sooner this anomaly is rectified the
better for the export orientation of the economy, and for the socio-
politico-economic development of the country as a whole.
An immediately available solution is facilitating remittances, now
roughly $1 billion per month and taxing the 57 per cent underground
economy, under-invoicing and tax evasion, if not smuggling. The
World Bank’s recent report claims this deprives the exchequer of over
$500 billion annually. This will be equal to, if not, more than the aid,
loans and credits which are always given at a high cost to the
economy. Taxing the underground economy will reinforce localisation
of investment, production and exports – glocalisation, creating
employment opportunities, providing the roti, kapra aur makaan
(bread, clothing and shelter) promised to the masses of people, not
globalisation, which serves global interests. It will enable also much
sought after access to the developed world based on outright merit.
APRIL 2, 2011 5:45 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a NY Times report on Texas farmers planting more profitable
cotton in stead of food crops:
“There’s a lot more money to be made in cotton right now,” said
Ramon Vela, a farmer here in the Texas Panhandle, as he stood in a
field where he grew wheat last year, its stubble now plowed under to
make way for cotton. Around the first week of May, Mr. Vela, 37, will
plant 1,100 acres of cotton, up from 210 acres a year ago. “The prices
are the big thing,” he said. “That’s the driving force.”
----------
“It’s good for the farmer, but from a humanitarian perspective it’s
kind of scary,” said Webb Wallace, executive director of the Cotton
and Grain Producers of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. “Those people in
poor countries that have a hard time affording food, they’re going to
be even less able to afford it now.”
Myriad factors determine food prices. Ethanol demand has pushed up
corn prices. Wheat prices rose last year when Russia banned exports
after drought devastated its crop.
Farmers typically respond by increasing plantings of the most
profitable crop. In the middle of the last decade, as food prices began
to rise, cotton prices remained low, prompting farmers to switch from
cotton to grains and other food crops. When corn prices jumped with
ethanol demand in 2007, farmers grew much more corn.
This year, cotton prices are the highest they have been in years,
luring farmers despite strong prices for other crops.
The United States Department of Agriculture predicted last month
that southern farmers this spring would plant 12.8 million acres of
upland cotton, the type that accounts for the vast majority of the crop.
That is a 19 percent increase from last year, when farmers grew 10.8
million acres. It also predicted that the acreage for corn and wheat
would grow, although the increases would be lower than they might
have been without the competition from cotton. On Thursday, the
department will release an updated forecast, based on a survey of
farmers.
The effect of the cotton shift is expected to be magnified
internationally, as farmers in other major cotton-producing countries,
like Brazil, also respond to the high prices.
Cotton futures prices reached nearly $2.20 a pound this month on the
ICE futures exchange in New York, up from $0.73 a pound last July.
The price is expected to fall by harvest time, but farmers said they
hoped to get close to $1 a pound.
In the United States, the economics of growing cotton vary according
to many factors, including regional differences and whether or not the
land is irrigated. Farmers in several southern states said that at a
cotton price of about $1 a pound, their profit could be roughly $200 to
$500 more per acre than they could earn growing corn or wheat. For
1,000 acres planted in cotton, that means an additional $200,000 to
$500,000 profit.
-----
Mr. Patterson expects to plant 1,500 acres of cotton this year, up from
600 last year. He said the frenzy was so intense that even cattle
ranchers were talking about growing cotton.
Farmers say they have no choice but to plant the crops that give them
the best chance of making money. They face many uncertainties, and
their profits can be wiped out by bad weather, rising costs for items
like fertilizer, fuel or seed, or unstable crop prices, which can
plummet as rapidly as they rise.
The National Cotton Council expects substantial increases in all
cotton-growing states, including large jumps in North Carolina,
Mississippi and Tennessee. But Texas is the nation’s biggest cotton
producer, and will have by far the biggest increase in acreage.
APRIL 2, 2011 6:01 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Someone has to stop the Federal Reserve before it crushes what
remains of America’s Main Street economy, argues former budget
director David Stockman in a piece forMarketwatch.com:
n the last few weeks alone, it launched two more financial sector
pumping operations which will harm the real economy, even as these
actions juice Wall Street’s speculative humors.
First, joining the central banking cartels’ market rigging operation in
support of the yen, the Fed helped bail-out carry traders from a
savage short-covering squeeze. Then, green lighting the big banks for
another go-round of the dividend and share-buyback scam, it
handsomely rewarded options traders who had been front-running
this announcement for weeks.
Indeed, this sort of action is so blatant that the Fed might as well just
look for a financial vein in the vicinity of 200 West St., and proceed
straight-away to mainline the trading desks located there.
In any event, the yen intervention certainly had nothing to do with the
evident distress of the Japanese people. What happened is that one of
the potent engines of the global carry-trade — the massive use of the
yen as a zero cost funding currency — backfired violently in response
to the unexpected disasters in Japan.
Accordingly, this should have been a moment of condign punishment
— wiping out years of speculative gains in heavily leveraged
commodity and emerging market currency and equity wagers, and
putting two-way risk back into the markets for so-called risk assets.
Instead, once again, speculators were reassured that in the global
financial casino operated by the world’s central bankers, the house is
always there for them—this time with an exchange rate cap on what
would otherwise have been a catastrophic surge in their yen funding
costs.
Is it any wonder, then, that the global economy is being pummeled by
one speculative tsunami after the next? Ever since the latest surge
was trigged last summer by the Jackson Hole smoke signals about
QE2, the violence of the price action in the risk asset flavor of late —
cotton, met coal, sugar, oil, coffee, copper, rice, corn, heating oil and
the rest — has been stunning, with moves of 10% a week or more.
In the face of these ripping commodity index gains, the Fed’s
argument that surging food costs are due to emerging market demand
growth is just plain lame. Was there a worldwide fasting ritual going
on during the months just before the August QE2 signals when food
prices were much lower? And haven’t the EM economies been
growing at their present pace for about the last 15 years now, not just
the last seven months?
Similarly, the supply side has had its floods and droughts — like
always. But these don’t explain the price action, either. Take Dr.
Cooper’s own price chart during the past 12 months: last March the
price was $3.60 per pound — after which it plummeted to $2.80 by
July, rose to $4.60 by February and revisited $4.10 per pound.
That violent round trip does not chart Mr. Market’s considered
assessment of long-term trends in mining capacity or end-use
industrial consumption. Instead, it reflects central bank triggered
speculative tides which begin on the futures exchanges and ripple out
through inventory stocking and de-stocking actions all around the
world — even reaching the speculative copper hoards maintained by
Chinese pig farmers and the vandals who strip-mine copper from the
abandoned tract homes in Phoenix.
The short-covering panic in the yen forex markets following Japan’s
intervention, and the subsequent panicked response by the central
banks, wasn’t just a low frequency outlier — the equivalent of an 8.9
event on the financial Richter scale. Rather, it is the predictable result
of the lunatic ZIRP monetary policy which has been pursued by the
Bank of Japan for more than a decade now--and with the Fed, BOE
and ECB not far behind.
APRIL 5, 2011 10:02 PM
Riaz Haq said...
In flood-stricken Pakistan, a good wheat harvest is expected,
reports Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO):
Islamabad/Rome, 30 Mar 2011 -- A large-scale distribution by FAO of
wheat seeds to the victims of last year’s floods in Pakistan is now ripe
to yield enough food for half a million poor rural households.
With an average family size of eight, this translates into a harvest
large enough to feed four million people for the next six months.
FAO spent $54 million of international donor funding buying and
distributing quality wheat seeds as part of its emergency intervention
that began last August. . Once the harvest is completed, this donation
will have produced a crop worth almost $190 million in wheat flour,
the main staple, at current local retail prices. “The investment made
by donors has been quadrupled,” said Daniele Donati, Chief, FAO
Emergency Operations Service. “Moreover, farmers will be able to
save the seeds from this year’s harvest to plant again later this year.”
More than 18 million people in Pakistan were affected by last
summer’s severe flooding, which caused extensive damage to housing,
infrastructure and crops.
Farming nearly fully-funded
In responding to the immediate and critical challenges of the 2010
floods, FAO led the Agriculture Cluster, comprised over 200
organizations, reaching 1.4 million farming families across Pakistan.
FAO received $92 million of its $107 million appeal, which has
enabled it to shore up the smallholder agricultural system in the four
Pakistan provinces affected by the flooding. The donors were
Australia, Belgium, Canada, CERF, the European Commission, IFAD,
Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
As well as supporting the “Rabi” wheat planting season, it is
estimated that FAO saved the lives of almost a million livestock by
supplying temporary shelter and enough de-worming tablets and dry
animal feed for almost 290,000 families. Green fodder is now
becoming available as the harsh Pakistan winter turns to Spring.
“The livestock interventions really paid off,” Donati said. “It costs ten
times more to buy a new animal, which often represent a family’s
lifetime savings”.
Canals cleared
FAO is overseeing a thousand cash-for-work schemes by which
workers are paid to clear irrigation canals blocked with silt and flood
debris.
One severely affected province not to have received much help is
Sindh. This was because the fields remained waterlogged until well
after the end of the Rabi planting season, and in some cases are still
inundated. The UN Agency will shortly distribute quality rice seeds to
almost 25 000 families in Sindh for the upcoming planning season, but
over 700 000 families will require assistance over the coming months.
Recovery priorities
FAO, in partnership with the Government of Pakistan has identified
recovery priorities for the next two years. These are increasing crop,
livestock, fishery and agro-forestry production, improving diets and
nutrition and boosting agriculture extension services to offer advice to
landless and smallholder farmers.
“Pursuit of these core objectives will significantly reduce the
vulnerability of the populations in question, improve food production
and income generation, and increase affected communities’ resilience
to future shocks,” said Donati. FAO expects its recovery programme
to cost $94 million, enough to assist 430 000 families in 24 districts.
An Early Recovery Working Group, co-chaired by the Pakistan
Government’s National Disaster Management Authority and the
United Nations Development Programme, has been set up with eight
sectors covered including one on Agriculture and Food Security, co-
chaired by FAO, WFP and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
APRIL 6, 2011 4:58 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Pakistan's ministry of finance is projecting 4% growth in fiscal 2011-
12, according to The News:
“We are looking at a growth rate of four percent for the next year
because of a good services sector and on the hope of better farm
output,” said a Finance Ministry official who did not want to be
identified.
The figure compares with a 3.7 percent growth forecast by the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) in its Outlook 2011 report released on
Wednesday.
The ADB expects persistent energy problems and security issues will
continue to check Pakistan’s growth in 2011/12, with surging inflation
posing a further major risk.
---
Last year, the worst-ever floods that hit the country inflicted $10
billion in losses, forcing officials to slash growth estimates in between
2.5-3 percent for the current year, down from an expected 4.5
percent.
The services sector, however, is likely to grow by four percent in the
current year to June and there are signs that the farm sector is
recovering from the flooding.
---
Higher cotton, rice and sugar output is expected in the coming year,
analysts said.
“We expect that 2011/12 will be much better than this year ... Our
own (growth) forecast is close to 4.5 percent,” said Sayem Ali, an
economist at the Standard Chartered Bank.
An official at the Planning Commission, which prepares growth
targets, also spoke of likely four percent growth next year, but said
that was contingent on continuing support from remittances from
Pakistanis working abroad and on exports, which have grown by 20-
25 percent during the first eight months of the current financial year.
However, the large-scale manufacturing sector, which dominates the
overall industry making up 12.2 percent of Pakistan’s GDP, remains a
major concern as it faces chronic energy shortages and high interest
rates that discourage private sector borrowing.
The sector grew 1.03 percent up to January, against 2.34 percent
during the corresponding period last year.
“Energy shortfalls are lowering real growth by at least two
percentage points annually,” the ADB said in its report.
Improved prospects for Pakistan’s economy, however, will largely
depend on the implementation of measures to address key problems
such as inflation, the budget deficit and the need for transparent
revenue policies, according to the ADB.
“Increasing prices are on the warning level, not just for Pakistan, but
for the whole region,” said Rune Stroem, ADB’s Pakistan country
director.
The ADB forecasts inflation in Pakistan will quicken to 16 percent in
2011, the highest in Asia. Revenue generation is another grey area.
The central bank chief said this week that quick steps were needed to
broaden the tax base in Pakistan, which has one of the lowest tax-to-
GDP ratios in the world, currently around 10 percent.
The IMF has not yet released the latest tranche of the $11 billion loan
due in May last year because of the government’s inability to
implement a reformed general sales tax, seen as a key to expanding
the tax base.
The fiscal deficit, meanwhile, is expected in between 5.3 percent and
5.5 percent of the GDP in 2010/11, but could be higher if some
external flows, including grants, are not received soon.
Stroem said that 5.5 percent deficit estimates seemed unrealistic and
there are signals that these might slip even further.
APRIL 9, 2011 10:11 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's blog post from today's Dawn newspaper:
GLORIOUS countryside lies between Rahim Yar Khan and
Bahawalpur. Travelling across six districts in Punjab, before a blazing
summer sets in, I experienced endless fields of wheat waiting to turn
golden, of freshly harvested mustard, acres of ripe sugarcane and
sprawling mango orchards.
Far from the drudge and gloom of metropolitan Pakistan, economic
privation, traffic snarls, extreme religion and the cricket World Cup
agony, this is another Pakistan. Over a quarter of a century after the
green revolution ended the rural economy is back in boom, this time
on the back of rising prices. The feel-good factor is all around.
------------
Alongside the cash economy, the place is also brimming with ideas,
and with an entrepreneurial spirit. A young man I meet at Rahim Yar
Khan’s chamber of commerce has an IT degree and owns an ice cream
distribution business spawning an elaborate cold chain across three
districts. He tells me that sales are surging because rural society is
transitioning to modern desserts which are now more affordable than
traditional sweets like mithai and khoya.
Meanwhile, he’s toying with the bigger vision of an electronic
marketplace for agricultural produce. Live connectivity to grain
mandis and markets for fresh produce and milk will empower farmers
to obtain prices online and through their cellphones. He wants to
materialise this and wants tips. I give him my two cents worth: study
similar models, write a concept paper, galvanise partners around it,
put in seed money and get the venture to mezzanine level.
For now the agricultural economy is growing more in value than in
volume. As it does, it pulls in a rising demand for inputs. Fertiliser and
agrochemical companies, some listed on the stock exchange are
making record profits. Still, few find time to complain about rising
input prices. With a population of 400,000, Rahim Yar Khan sports
showrooms displaying cars, motorcycles and generators, fast food
outlets and even private healthcare clinics.
Even then, not all the cash would appear to go into consumption.
Pakistan now ranks amongst the world’s top 10 markets for tractors.
Alongside, and despite constrained credit to agriculture, farmers are
investing in agricultural implements, irrigation channels and farm
modernisation.
--------------
“Simple”, he explains, “this year the ginners got together with the
local utility company, Mepco. We’ve instituted a system whereby
instead of intermittent hours of loadshedding we get it in one block of
12 hours. This way we can run the factory on one shift per day”. With
that problem behind him he now wanted to move on; that is, to a
pasteurised milk business.
As the green revolution tapered off, a poultry revolution began; in the
late 1970s. Ever since, Pakistan has been gnawing away
at broiler chicken and there’s no turning back. Today a dairy
revolution is sweeping Pakistan. As the world’s fifth largest milk
producer, the country can only process three per cent of its milk
production. Sitting in his factory office in Khanpur — one could have
been in any plush office in a metropolis — we open his wireless
notebook and download a pre-feasibility study for a milk pasteurising
business from Smeda’s website. We glean through it, and at a Rs160m
capital outlay it looks doable for him.
--------
In 2009, an NGO distributed young cattle on micro-credit to 1,000
small farmers and built an apex organisation to collect and market
milk from these grass-roots. The Dutch consultant for the NGO
informs me that a modern farmers’ cooperative model is now evolving.
Such models have long been in vogue in Europe and indeed in several
developing countries. Usually the extended supply chain ends at
farmer-owned retail outlets — co-ops. Why hasn’t this concept gained
traction in Pakistan?
---------
And so Pakistan prepares to harvest another bumper wheat crop in
2011.
APRIL 10, 2011 9:38 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's blog post from today's Dawn newspaper:
GLORIOUS countryside lies between Rahim Yar Khan and
Bahawalpur. Travelling across six districts in Punjab, before a blazing
summer sets in, I experienced endless fields of wheat waiting to turn
golden, of freshly harvested mustard, acres of ripe sugarcane and
sprawling mango orchards.
Far from the drudge and gloom of metropolitan Pakistan, economic
privation, traffic snarls, extreme religion and the cricket World Cup
agony, this is another Pakistan. Over a quarter of a century after the
green revolution ended the rural economy is back in boom, this time
on the back of rising prices. The feel-good factor is all around.
------------
Alongside the cash economy, the place is also brimming with ideas,
and with an entrepreneurial spirit. A young man I meet at Rahim Yar
Khan’s chamber of commerce has an IT degree and owns an ice cream
distribution business spawning an elaborate cold chain across three
districts. He tells me that sales are surging because rural society is
transitioning to modern desserts which are now more affordable than
traditional sweets like mithai and khoya.
Meanwhile, he’s toying with the bigger vision of an electronic
marketplace for agricultural produce. Live connectivity to grain
mandis and markets for fresh produce and milk will empower farmers
to obtain prices online and through their cellphones. He wants to
materialise this and wants tips. I give him my two cents worth: study
similar models, write a concept paper, galvanise partners around it,
put in seed money and get the venture to mezzanine level.
For now the agricultural economy is growing more in value than in
volume. As it does, it pulls in a rising demand for inputs. Fertiliser and
agrochemical companies, some listed on the stock exchange are
making record profits. Still, few find time to complain about rising
input prices. With a population of 400,000, Rahim Yar Khan sports
showrooms displaying cars, motorcycles and generators, fast food
outlets and even private healthcare clinics.
Even then, not all the cash would appear to go into consumption.
Pakistan now ranks amongst the world’s top 10 markets for tractors.
Alongside, and despite constrained credit to agriculture, farmers are
investing in agricultural implements, irrigation channels and farm
modernisation.
--------------
“Simple”, he explains, “this year the ginners got together with the
local utility company, Mepco. We’ve instituted a system whereby
instead of intermittent hours of loadshedding we get it in one block of
12 hours. This way we can run the factory on one shift per day”. With
that problem behind him he now wanted to move on; that is, to a
pasteurised milk business.
As the green revolution tapered off, a poultry revolution began; in the
late 1970s. Ever since, Pakistan has been gnawing away
at broiler chicken and there’s no turning back. Today a dairy
revolution is sweeping Pakistan. As the world’s fifth largest milk
producer, the country can only process three per cent of its milk
production. Sitting in his factory office in Khanpur — one could have
been in any plush office in a metropolis — we open his wireless
notebook and download a pre-feasibility study for a milk pasteurising
business from Smeda’s website. We glean through it, and at a Rs160m
capital outlay it looks doable for him.
--------
In 2009, an NGO distributed young cattle on micro-credit to 1,000
small farmers and built an apex organisation to collect and market
milk from these grass-roots. The Dutch consultant for the NGO
informs me that a modern farmers’ cooperative model is now evolving.
Such models have long been in vogue in Europe and indeed in several
developing countries. Usually the extended supply chain ends at
farmer-owned retail outlets — co-ops. Why hasn’t this concept gained
traction in Pakistan?
---------
And so Pakistan prepares to harvest another bumper wheat crop in
2011.
APRIL 10, 2011 9:40 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Dawn-AFP story about a modest job recovery in Pakistan's
textile sector with rising exports:
KARACHI: After a year of unemployment and wondering if his family
would be better off if he died, Pakistani textile worker Murad Ali has
got the spring back in his step.
One of thousands laid off by textile bosses last year, the father of four
is now back at work and one of those to benefit from a surge in
Pakistani exports in the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30.
Experts say rising global commodity prices, a government decision to
prioritise power supply to industry and currency devaluation that has
made Pakistani products more competitive, have fired an export
boom.
Compared with the same period last year, the Trade Development
Authority of Pakistan says textile exports such as silk rose 25.8 per
cent and agricultural produce, such as basmati, rose 6.2 per cent from
July to February 7, 2011.
The textiles sector is one of the key drivers of the Pakistani economy,
accounting for 55 per cent of all exports and 38 per cent of the
workforce, according to official figures.
Bosses have rehired staff who were laid off, but Ali is only getting a
third of the salary as a skilled garment worker that he used to
command.
“I’m earning less than last year. It is difficult to live a better life due to
price rises, but I’m happy,” Ali said.
He has re-enrolled his sons at school but his wife will continue to
work as a maid. Money is too tight for her to go back to being a
housewife.
“The situation has drastically changed in the favour of the country’s
economy,” said textile tycoon Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, who employs more
than 2,000 workers and predicts exports will rise 10 per cent for the
fiscal year 2010 to 2011.
“Now with demand for Pakistani products rising internationally we
are employing more workers.
“Our exports are getting healthier because of an increase in
international commodity prices and the government’s will to give top
priority to the country’s economy,” said Baig, an advisor to Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
The Asian Development Bank forecasts GDP growth for Pakistan of
2.5 per cent for fiscal year 2011 despite pressures from
unprecedented floods in 2010, with a relatively modest rebound to 3.7
per cent for fiscal year 2012.
-------------
Pakistan suffers from a profound electricity crisis that restricts
production to around 80 per cent of its needs — a situation that will
only worsen as the temperatures crawl higher in the coming months.
The budget deficit has grown to 5.5 per cent of GDP, above a 4.9 per
cent target for the current fiscal year to June 30.
To fund the shortfall, the government borrowed $4.4 billion from the
central bank from July 1 to February 28, a move that worsened
inflation, rather than raise taxes and cut spending as the IMF and
World Bank would like.
---------
Mohammad Sohail, head of the Karachi-based Topline Securities
research and brokerage house, said the export boom would contribute
to economic recovery, yet warned the gains were minimal.
“It is very fragile because the fiscal deficit is much higher than the
target of 5.3 per cent because of the government’s heavy borrowing
from the central bank,” he said.
----------
“Furthermore, the overall security situation in Pakistan is very
uncertain, which is making the foreigners and local investors wary all
the time.” Independent economist A.B. Shahid said rising
international oil prices had hit the country’s economy hard, adding $4
billion to the oil bill.
Pakistan could have benefited more from 8-9 per cent export growth,
he said, by exporting cloth in its value-added forms rather than raw
cotton and yarn.
While Ali is content with life, he is also wary of uncertainties ahead.
“Life has become too insecure. Everyone is ill at ease. Let’s just wait
and see.” – AFP
APRIL 14, 2011 10:58 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an IRIN story of a family in Muzaffargarh struggling to recover
after the floods in 2010:
MUZAFFARGARH, 8 April 2011 (IRIN) - Eight months after floods
forced Saleemullah Adeel and his family to abandon their home in
Pakistan’s southern Punjab city of Muzaffargarh, the road to recovery
has proved rough for this landless farmer.
The wheat he planted on 10 acres (four hectares) leased from a large
landowner at an annual fee of US$118 per acre (0.4 hectares) is doing
well, and Saleemullah hopes for a good crop because weather
conditions so far have been good. Near his house, which is now
partially repaired, there are neat rows of vegetables, and a few hens
feed in the yard. But he has little else to be happy about.
“I bought wheat seed and fertilizer after selling the jewellery we had
purchased for my elder daughter’s wedding, which was scheduled for
this month,” Saleemullah told IRIN. “Now it has been postponed [yet]
I have used up all my savings and my two sons, who worked on fish
farms, have lost their jobs.”
The July-September 2010 floods destroyed hundreds of fish farms in
the Muzaffargarh area, according to media reports, leaving many, like
Saleemullah’s sons, out of work.
But Saleemullah’s problems do not end here. Since he did not own the
land he farmed, he was not awarded compensation by the provincial
government, which gave landowners seed and fertilizer. “The landlord
we lease from claimed he needed [the seed and fertilizer] for his own
lands,” he said.
Cotton crop destroyed
Other people, too, have suffered. “I have earned nothing for months
because the cotton crop was destroyed, and factories which crush the
cotton seed to extract oil did not employ us this time as they usually
do,” said Ahsan Akhtar, 30, whose wife was not hired this year as a
cotton-picker.
Across the country, people have continued to live with losses incurred
during the floods, even as they attempt to recover, but this is proving
tough. “My youngest child, aged six months, has had diarrhoea for
nearly a month,” said Sanober Bibi, 25. “The health workers who used
to visit early on after the floods no longer come, and the medicine
given by the local midwife did him no good at all.” There is no clinic in
their village.
On 6 April Neva Khan, country director of the UK Charity Oxfam,
pointed fingers at the government, telling reporters that a delay on
the part of the government to provide a “reconstruction strategy” had
resulted in delays in urgent rebuilding and recovery work. In some
cases this had “barely started even eight months after the disaster”,
he said.
A government official refuted that claim. "The rehabilitation phase
was started some months ago," Ahmed Kamal, spokesman for the
National Disaster Management Authority, told IRIN. A Sindh
government official, who preferred anonymity, said a "desperate lack
of funds" was holding up recovery in the province, but "progress was
slowly being made".
APRIL 18, 2011 6:23 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Dawn piece on rising rural income disparities from high
commodity prices:
..Is the current spike in the commodity prices benefiting everyone
living in the villages, particularly in Punjab and Sindh which together
contribute more than 90 per cent to the country’s agricultural output
and where more than two-thirds of the country’s population lives?
“Whereas a large chunk of this income has ended up with the
agriculture elite, there are signs that some of it has trickled down to
the small farmers as well,” according to Waheed. Others argue that
the transfer of additional cash has widened income disparity in the
rural society even if many small farmers have also benefited from the
soaring crop prices because the “trickle-down” has been uneven and
limited.
-------
Ashfaque Hasan Khan, dean and principal of the NUST Business
School who served as a special finance secretary in Musharraf
government, says the income disparity in the rural areas has widened
as a result of the rising crop prices.
“Only 40 per cent of the rural population is engaged in the crop sector
and a vast majority of them are small landholders. This means only a
small portion of population in the rural areas has gained from the
increasing crop prices,” he elaborates.
In Punjab, for example, less than half of the rural population is
engaged in the crop sector. Some 90 per cent of it falls in the category
of small farmers with landholdings up to 12.5 acres.--------
“An overwhelming majority of small farmers buys inputs on credit
and, thus, is forced to pay a much higher price than those who pay
cash for these inputs,” claims Mughal. “Even if they have cash their
cost has gone up manifold, offsetting the gains of
higher crop prices.”
There are people who are of the view that smaller landholding have
helped a more equitable distribution of additional incomes among the
growers in Punjab compared to the farmers in Sindh where
landholdings are very large.
Salman Shah, former finance minister, says the additional incomes
generated by higher commodity prices have been distributed more
evenly in Punjab compared to Sindh.
-----------
Shah is of the opinion that the landless labour in the villages has also
benefitted from the new economic prosperity being experienced in
rural areas and their wages have also gone up. But he says only a
comprehensive study of the impact of commodity prices on the rural
society could give answers to many questions.
--------
Many fear that the growing agricultural commodity prices may rob
the farmers of the incentive to boost their productivity. Mughal says
the rising prices and decreasing productivity is not good for the
economy.
“Our productivity per acre has decreased significantly over the
decades whereas India has successfully managed to substantially
boost its crop output. The new wave of economic prosperity in the
rural areas should not be allowed to take our focus off the need to
boost productivity. That will be disastrous for the economy as well as
people,” he warns.
While the soaring prices have brought a semblance of prosperity to
the rural areas, it has added to woes of the urban population where
poverty levels are rising and the quality of life suffering. The
Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased by 55 per cent over the last
three years whereas salaries have not risen accordingly, according to
Waheed.
“The urban population that relies on manufacturing growth and
trading, or earns fixed salaries has generally experienced a
deterioration in its standard of living, and is not happy about it. Large
scale manufacturing growth has declined by about one per cent over
the last three years whereas the wholesale trade has risen by a
marginal four per cent,” he says, underlining the impact of rising
price inflation on the urban consumers
APRIL 18, 2011 6:45 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an interesting 2004 ADB assessment of Pakistan's rural
economy:
....
Despite recent good macroeconomic performance, Pakistan continues
to have high levels of poverty. Poverty estimates of 2000-2001,
indicate that around one third of the population lives at or below the
poverty line, with poverty being concentrated in rural areas. Available
international literature indicates a strong and clear-cut relationship
between agricultural growth and poverty reduction. The agricultural
sector is a major determinant of the overall economic growth and well
being in Pakistan, contributing 23 percent of total GDP; employing
42% of the total employed labor force; and accounting for nearly 9
percent of the country's export earnings. Thus, high agricultural
growth is essential for significant poverty reduction in Pakistan.
However, in addition to the direct impact of agriculture growth on
poverty reduction, there is also a much larger indirect effect through
the linkages between agriculture and non-farm growth in rural areas.
Non-farm growth is closely linked with agricultural growth since
peasant farmers spend a large portion of their incremental income on
locally produced non-agricultural goods thus generating employment
and incomes in the adjoining areas. The increased demand for non-
farm goods leads to a much larger increase in employment, which is a
key vehicle for poverty reduction. Available information also points to
the increasing importance of non-farm incomes for rural households.
The five major sources of income in rural Pakistan are wages/salaries,
transfer income, crop income, rental income and livestock income.
Livestock is a particularly important source of income for the poor
with a majority of poor households, especially the landless and small
landowners, dependent on this sector.
In the light of increasingly limited income generating opportunities in
the on-farm sector, poor households are increasingly turning to the
non-farm sector as a key source of livelihood. In addition, there
appears to be a higher incidence of vulnerability to falling into and
remaining in poverty, among households which are dependent solely
on agriculture. Rural areas that are well connected with the urban
areas seem to be more prosperous, in part because the lack of
employment opportunities in rural areas results either in labor
reallocation or migration. In both cases, human capital plays a
positive and significant role and the poorest of the poor neither
possess the human capital nor have the resources to migrate. This
vulnerable group needs special attention.
Pakistan's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper outlines four pillars for
accelerating growth and reducing poverty. Pillar One focuses on
accelerating economic growth, pillar Two on improving governance
and devolution, Pillar Three on investing in human capital, and Pillar
Four on targeting the poor and vulnerable. Pillars One and Four focus
on generating employment, especially in the rural areas, small and
medium industries and micro-finance. There are also very strong
linkages between income poverty and the other two PRSP Pillars. For
example, access to justice, successful devolution, increasing the
human capital of the poor, and ensuring effective safety nets are also
central factors for increasing the incomes of poor people.
---
To increase incomes of poor households and build social capital, the
ADB is funding a Micro-Finance Sector Development Program. As part
of its objective to efficiently provide financial and social services to
the poor, the ADB assisted with the establishment of the Khushali
Bank, a public-private enterprise in partnership with NGOs, under this
program. The ADB is also engaged in several rural development
projects such as the Malakand, Federally Administered Tribal Areas,
Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan Rural Development Projects, to
enhance household incomes, particularly for the smallholder and
tenant farmers, and the landless.....
APRIL 18, 2011 7:10 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here are a few excerpts from Wall Street Journal story titled "India's
Boom Bypasses Rural Poor":
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGA), as the $9 billion program is known, is riddled with
corruption, according to senior government officials. Less than half of
the projects begun since 2006—including new roads and irrigation
systems—have been completed. Workers say they're frequently not
paid in full or forced to pay bribes to get jobs, and aren't learning any
new skills that could improve their long-term prospects and break the
cycle of poverty.
In Nakrasar, a collection of villages in the dusty western state of
Rajasthan, 19 unfinished projects for catching rain and raising the
water table are all there is to show for a year's worth of work and
$77,000 in program funds. No major roads have been built, no new
homes, schools or hospitals or any infrastructure to speak of.
At one site on a recent afternoon, around 200 workers sat idly around
a bone-dry pit. "What's the big benefit?" said Gopal Ram Jat, a 40-
year-old farmer in a white cotton head scarf. He says he has earned
enough money through the program—about $200 in a year—to buy
some extra food for his family, but not much else. "No public assets
were made of any significance."
Scenes like this stand in stark contrast to India's image of a global
capitalist powerhouse with surging growth and a liberalized economy.
When it comes to combating rural poverty, the country looks more
like a throwback to the India of old: a socialist-inspired state founded
on Gandhian ideals of noble peasantry, self-sufficiency and a distaste
for free enterprise.
Workers in the rural employment program aren't allowed to use
machines, for example, and have to dig instead with pick axes and
shovels. The idea is to create as many jobs as possible for unskilled
workers. But in practice, say critics, it means no one learns new skills,
only basic projects get completed and the poor stay poor—dependent
on government checks.
----------
Others said the ban on mechanization limits the scope of projects to
gravel roads and pits to capture water. Such programs last for only a
couple of years and do little to improve village life. Balveer Singh
Meena, a 31-year old farmer in the village of Mohanpura in northern
Karauli, ekes out a living growing wheat and chickpeas. He eats a
single Indian flat-bread known as roti and vegetables for every meal.
By selling what little excess food they produce, Mr. Meena and his
three brothers are able to make just over $400 per year, which must
stretch to pay for an extended family of eight people.
-----------
But shortly after the program started in February 2006, workers
complained that local leaders were docking pay and asking for money
in return for job cards. The central government responded in 2008 by
sending money directly to workers' bank accounts. But according to
workers and auditors, the money takes so long to reach those
accounts—up to 45 days—that workers are often forced to accept
lesser cash payments from local leaders on the condition that they
repay the money at the full amount.
Audits of the program in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh found
that about $125 million, or about 5% of the $2.5 billion spent since
2006, has been misappropriated. Some 38,000 local officials were
implicated, and almost 10,000 staff lost their jobs.
In one study of eastern Orissa state, only 60% of households said a
member had done any of the work reported on their behalf. Earlier
this month, the central government gave the green-light for the
Central Bureau of Investigation, India's top federal criminal
investigation body, to launch a probe into alleged misuse of program
funds in Orissa....
APRIL 30, 2011 7:13 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an AFP report on Pakistani tax dodgers:
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan is defying mounting Western pressure to end
a giant tax dodge with fewer and fewer people contributing to
government coffers, spelling dire consequences for a sagging
economy.
Tax is taboo in Pakistan. Barely one percent of the population pays at
all, as a corrupt bureaucracy safeguards entrenched interests and
guards private wealth, but starves energy, health and education of
desperately needed funds.
Less than 10 percent of GDP comes from tax revenue -- one of the
lowest global rates and worse than in much of Africa, say economists.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) spokesman Asrar Rauf said 1.9
million people paid tax in 2010, less than the year before, despite 3.2
million being registered to pay -- itself a drop in the ocean of a
population of 180 million.
As a result, Pakistan's fiscal deficit widened from 5.3 percent to 6.3
percent of GDP in 2010, the Asian Development Bank said this month,
knocking 2011 growth figures to 2.5 percent and predictions for 2012
to 3.2 percent.
---------
This month visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron pressed the
point home, saying aid increases were a hard sell when: "Too many of
your richest people are getting away without paying much tax at all
and that's not fair".
---------
The IMF last May halted a $11.3 billion assistance package over a
lack of progress on reforms, principally on tax.
And despite a flurry of meetings, no new loan has been agreed in the
run-up to the IMF and World Bank's Spring meetings.
An IMF review mission is due to visit on May 8. "Consensus is
building, we have almost reached agreement (on reform)," one
government official told AFP, but gave no details.
----------
What would really work, say analysts, would be scrapping exemptions
that serve entrenched interests, such as a 50 percent tax discount on
sugar and a gate on taxing agricultural income that largely exempts
wealthy feudal landowners.
But stalemate and vested interests have made that impossible.
"There's talk of early elections. One has a brittle coalition. A lot of the
reform areas that need to be dealt with have very well entrenched and
powerful lobbies that are making the case against it," said a finance
ministry official.
As it is, the tiny minority who contribute say they carry a
disproportionate tax burden, for which they get nothing in return.
Pakistan suffers from an awful energy crisis, yet government spending
on electricity subsidies last year reached just under one percent of
GDP, health spending 0.5 percent and education two percent, said the
finance ministry.
According to a 2009 study by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative
Development and Transparency, the average member of parliament
was worth $900,000 and the wealthiest $37 million.
Those figures stand against estimates that a quarter of the population
lives below the poverty line and that GDP per capita stands at $2,400.
"No one trusts the government," says industrialist Mohammad Ishaq,
former vice president of the chamber of commerce in the
northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
"Without social welfare and with this corruption, nobody is ready to
pay tax... in return one gets nothing -- no health, education, social
security."
Eunuchs have been appointed tax collectors in Karachi, the financial
capital, on the understanding that a visit from the maligned
transgender group would embarrass people into paying up.
But former finance minister Salman Shah said tax evasion was
inevitable because of corruption within the FBR, which employs
23,000 people nationwide.
"There's a big mistrust of the tax authority itself. That's why a self-
assessment scheme came in," said Shah.
.............
MAY 1, 2011 8:08 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Overview of Livestock, Dairy, Fisheries & Poultry Sectorsin Pakistan:
1 Dairy Sector
With an estimated 33 billion litres of annual milk production from 50
million animals, managed by
over 8 million farming households, Pakistan is the 5th largest milk
producing country in the world
Livestock sector contributed approximately 53.2 percent of the
agriculture value added and 11.4
percent to national GDP during 2009 – 10
The milk economy in terms of value is over 27% of the total
Agriculture sector
Additional potential of 3 billion litres of milk, with a growth rate faster
than any other sector
Of the total 33 billion litres of milk produced, 71% is rural based and
29% is urban based
Of the total production, around 3% is processed and marketed
through formal channels
40% Supply and Demand gap exists in Pakistan.
2 Livestock Sector
Livestock sector contributed approximately 53.2 percent of the
agriculture value added and 11.4
percent to national GDP during 2009?10.
Gross value addition of livestock at current factor cost has increased
from Rs. 1304.6 billion
(2008?09) to Rs. 1537.5 billion (2009?10) showing an increase of 17.8
percent as compared to the
previous year.
The population growth, increase in per capita income and export
revenue is fuelling the demand for
livestock and livestock products.
Pakistan earned USD717 million from leather exports in FY09 and a
meagre USD96 million from meat
exports.
Poultry sector is one of the organized and vibrant segments of
agriculture industry of Pakistan.
This sector generates employment (direct/indirect) and income for
about 1.5 million people.
Poultry meat contributes 23.8 percent of the total meat production in
the country
The meat demand for Pakistan Domestic market is growing at a rate
of 2.73% for Beef, 2.90 % for
mutton and 6.10 % for poultry.
This domestic demand is growing to meet the population growth,
human need for protein and
calcium, migration of population from rural to urban and the
fluctuating growth due to per capita rise
in income.
-------
3 Fisheries Sector
During the period July?March 2009?10 the total marine and inland
fish production was estimated
952,735 Million tons out which 667,762 Million tons were marine
production and the remaining catch
come from inland waters.
A number of sites have been earmarked on an area of 20,000 acres of
land in Districts Thatta &
Badin along the coast.
Immense potential exists to start commercial scale fish/shrimp
farming in Sindh.
4 Poultry Sector
Poultry is an important sub – sector of agriculture and has contributed
enormously to food production by
playing a vital role in the domestic economy.
Poultry industry can broadly be divided into three
groups, viz. hatchery, poultry farming and feed sectors. This sector
generates employment and income
for about 1.5 million people in Pakistan. Its contribution in agriculture
growth is 4.81% and in Livestock
growth is 9.84%, whereas, the total poultry meat contributes to 23.8%
of the total meat production in
the country.
Pakistan, with a population of 170 Million people, has gone through a
sizeable growth in the production
of poultry meat and eggs. Per capita availability went up from 23 in
1991 to 46 eggs in 2009 and poultry
meat availability increased from 1.48kg to 2.88 kg during the same
period. In our Country per capita
consumption of meat is only 7 KG and 60-65 eggs annually. Whereas
developed world is consuming 41
KG meat and over 300 Eggs per capita per year. According to Industry
sources there is capacity of 5,000
Environmental Control Houses in Pakistan and currently only 2,500
houses are working.
The total Poultry population in Pakistan is approximately 610 Million.
MAY 21, 2011 8:33 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here are a few excerpts from an Express Tribune story on Pakistan's
growing meat exports:
Halal meat is also one of the fastest growing segments within the
global food trade. Between 2001 and 2009, the global beef trade grew
at an average of 10.4 per cent to reach just over $30 billion, according
to data available from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO). However, the market for halal beef imports in the Middle East
and Southeast Asia alone grew by over 18.2 per cent to reach just
under $2 billion a year during that same period.
Pakistan’s market share within this rapidly growing market is a paltry
2.9 per cent. However, Pakistani exporters seem to be determined to
make up for lost time. In the six years ending in 2009, Pakistani red
meat exports have risen by an average of 68.6 per cent a year, though
admittedly from a very low base.
Yet with the advent of more and more new players, and with
surprisingly robust support from the government, Pakistan is on the
verge of becoming one of the largest players in the meat trade, at
least within the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Perhaps the single biggest advantage that Pakistan has is proximity.
The country is closer to the Middle East than any of its biggest rivals
in the market. The three countries with the largest market shares are
Australia, Brazil and India, each of which has considerably higher
shipping costs to these export markets compared to Pakistan.
-----------
“The Brazilian animal is exactly the same as most of our breeds of
cattle. The quality of meat is also the same. The only difference is
their ability to market their meat better than us,” said Namazi. He
argues that Pakistan can easily displace Brazil as the Middle East’s
leading meat supplier.
Iran, in particular, seems to be keen for Pakistani beef. The Iranian
government has invested 50 per cent of the capital in the Lahore Meat
Company, a dedicated abattoir that will export meat to Iran.
Australian beef, with a powerful branding effort and a larger source
animal, has a specific niche market that industry experts believe will
be difficult for Pakistan to compete with in the medium term.
India, the one country that could completely destroy Pakistan’s
potential in the meat trade, has placed itself outside the global beef
market after a 2005 Indian Supreme Court ruling that upheld a ban
on cow slaughter as constitutional.
Indian exporters only sell carabeef – meat from buffalo – which is
considered inferior and commands lower prices and margins.
Nevertheless, Indian exporters dominate the market in Malaysia for
the lower end of beef, while Australians command the higher end.
“Malaysia is ripe for a middle-market meat supplier from Pakistan,”
said another expert in the meat business. Malaysia has had a free-
trade agreement with Pakistan since 2007.
Several companies from Pakistan have entered the red meat export
business and even more are in the process of entering the market.
The oldest and one of the most successful of these is PK Livestock, a
Karachi-based abattoir which has been exporting red meat to the
Middle East for over two decades.
Zenith, a Lahore-based exporter, became the first Pakistani company
to sell beef to Malaysia, after the Malaysian government relaxed its
regulatory requirements for Pakistani exporters.
Others, such as OMC and the Al Shaheer Corporation, have also
successfully begun exporting to the Middle East and are aggressively
seeking regulatory approvals for markets further afield in Southeast
Asia.
Pakistan’s total meat exports may come close to $100 million in 2011
and could surpass the $500 million mark in about five years,
according to projections by ASI Partners.
------
Despite having the eighth largest herd of cattle and the third largest
herd of goats in the world, Pakistan’s animal population is very
scattered, which makes procurement of the animals for the abattoir
expensive...
MAY 27, 2011 8:09 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Oxfam is warning that food prices will more than double by 2030,
according to BBC:
The prices of staple foods will more than double in 20 years unless
world leaders take action to reform the global food system, Oxfam has
warned.
By 2030, the average cost of key crops will increase by between 120%
and 180%, the charity forecasts.
Half of that increase will be caused by climate change, Oxfam
predicts, in its report Growing a Better Future.
It calls on world leaders to improve regulation of food markets and
invest in a global climate fund.
"The food system must be overhauled if we are to overcome the
increasingly pressing challenges of climate change, spiralling food
prices and the scarcity of land, water and energy," said Barbara
Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive.
Women and children
In its report, Oxfam highlights four "food insecurity hotspots", areas
which are already struggling to feed their citizens.
* in Guatemala, 865,000 people are at risk of food insecurity, due to a
lack of state investment in smallholder farmers, who are highly
dependent on imported food, the charity says.
* in India, people spend more than twice the proportion of their
income on food than UK residents - paying the equivalent of £10 for a
litre of milk and £6 for a kilo of rice.
* in Azerbaijan, wheat production fell 33% last year due to poor
weather, forcing the country to import grains from Russia and
Kazakhstan. Food prices were 20% higher in December 2010 than the
same month in 2009.
* in East Africa, eight million people currently face chronic food
shortages due to drought, with women and children among the
hardest hit.
The World Bank has also warned that rising food prices are pushing
millions of people into extreme poverty.
In April, it said food prices were 36% above levels of a year ago,
driven by problems in the Middle East and North Africa.
Oxfam wants nations to agree new rules to govern food markets, to
ensure the poor do not go hungry.
It said world leaders must:
* increase transparency in commodities markets and regulate futures
markets
* scale up food reserves
* end policies promoting biofuels
* invest in smallholder farmers, especially women
"We are sleepwalking towards an avoidable age of crisis," said Ms
Stocking.
"One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the
fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone."
Among the many factors driving rising food prices in the coming
decades, Oxfam predicts that climate change will have the most
serious impact.
Ahead of the UN climate summit in South Africa in December, it calls
on world leaders to launch a global climate fund, "so that people can
protect themselves from the impacts of climate change and are better
equipped to grow the food they need".
MAY 30, 2011 4:46 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a report on Pakistan trying to collect taxes from middlemen
(arti) on their profits:
The government has imposed a 10 per cent advance tax on
commission, or brokerage fee, earned by the agents of cultivators or
farmers and a withholding tax at a rate of 1.5 per cent on the sale of
cotton seed, rice and edible oils.
According to new taxation measures announced by the government on
Saturday, the new taxes will not be applicable to growers who sell
their produce, a circular of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said.
The circular stated that the withholding tax on sale/purchase of seed
cotton will be deducted by withholding agents.
“The withholding agent shall not deduct withholding tax on purchase
of agriculture produce which is directly sold by a grower of the
produce,” the circular added.
The 1.5 per cent withholding tax is being levied on profits earned by
the middlemen in the business of buying produce and selling it to the
markets at higher rates.
To ensure that the withholding tax is collected, the FBR has directed
that the buying agent will have to make three copies of the certificate
and give one to the grower, submit the second copy in office of tax
commissioner of Inland Revenue and keep the third copy for own
record.._
The FBR has also issued a format for the farmers, describing their
sale of sugarcane, wheat, rice or cotton to the buyer, which also
explains the details of the agricultural land the produce belongs to
and the date of sale.
While the circular also states that “in case sale of seed cotton or other
agriculture produce is made by a grower/cultivator through a
commission agent, then advance tax is collectible under section 123 of
the Ordinance at rate of 10 per cent of the gross commission income
of the commission agent”.
However, the farmers have rejected the new initiative of the FBR and
the farmers’ associations have come up with plans to organise a
demonstration in Multan on April 5.
Agriculturists have been accusing the government of adopting policies
that would only hurt the small- and mid-level farmers and these
measures are being taken to protect the large land owners who
should be paying income tax on agriculture.
Calling the new measures as indirect tax on the agricultural sector,
the President of Pakistan Agriculture Forum Ibrahim Mughal talking
to Dawn said the government was bent upon destroying all the
productive sectors and after imposing 17 per cent General Sales Tax
on agriculture inputs including pesticides, fertiliser and tractors
through presidential ordinance on March 15, 2011, the new move will
have more serious impact on the overall agriculture economy.
Mr Mughal said that new measures would affect the overall
agricultural sector and its productivity which would reverse economic
cycle for the small and mid-level growers.
“In March government imposed over Rs80 billion taxes on agriculture
sector in form of GST and advance taxes,” he said adding that around
80,000 tractors are being purchased by the growers per annum and
after the imposition of 17 per cent sales tax, they will have to pay a
total of Rs8 billion annually more than the earlier price.
JUNE 1, 2011 9:22 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Pak Suzuki Motors (PSMC) to gain from Punjab govt's yellow cab
scheme, according to The News:
KARACHI: Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) stands to gain from
the Yellow Cab Scheme announced by the government of Punjab in its
budget for 2011/12, analysts said.
The provincial government has announced that a grant of Rs4.50
billion has been allocated for the scheme, which will partly finance
20,000 vehicles.
Contrary to the yellow cab scheme, the Nawaz Sharif government
introduced in 1992/93, this scheme relies on locally-made vehicles.
‘Mehran’ and ‘Bolan’, the two most popular makes of Pak Suzuki, have
been short-listed for the scheme.
The analysts said the ultimate beneficiary will be the PSMC, which
has been suffering from appreciating yen, relaxation in import policy
and production constraints since a tsunami-hit Japan.
Gross profit margin of the company has squeezed to mere two percent
in 2010, which was around four percent a year back, they added.
Details of the scheme are yet to be unveiled, but it is expected that
the vehicles would be 50 percent financed by the government of
Punjab, while the buyer would have to pay the rest.
There are concerns of possible lack of transparency in financing.
Besides, there is a lack of clarity about the time period over which the
scheme would be spread.
Furqan Punjani, an analyst at the Topline Research, said that there
are possibilities that out of 20,000 only 12,000 to 15,000 units will go
in the said scheme and the rest might fall victim to corruption.
An analyst at Arif Habib Research said that it is believed that PSMC’s
car volumes would spike by nine percent and 16 percent in CY11E
and CY12F.
Consequently, the earning pershare (EPS) of the company would
improve by 75 percent and 116 percent in CY11E and CY12F,
respectively, he said.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?
ID=53955&Cat=3&dt=6/23/2011
JUNE 30, 2011 7:41 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Some 5,800 peasants in Sindh province are set to receive farmland
previously designated as government-owned flood runoff. By the end
of March, some 92,000 acres will be allotted to women only,
according to Christian Science Monitor:
.....When the fields are cleared, Nimat Khatoon, a 50-something
peasant farmer who has worked for the wealthy owner of these fields
since her childhood has something worth the wait: a four-acre slice of
land to call her own.
"It's something I couldn't dream of seeing in my lifetime. We're so
happy," she says with a toothy grin, as her children play around her
home made of wooden slats and a thatched roof.
Ms. Khatoon is one of some 5,800 peasants in the province of Sindh to
receive farmland, previously designated as government-owned flood
runoff, from the provincial government over the past two years. A
total of 95,000 acres has already been doled out, and in March
another 92,000 acres are to be allotted to women only.
The land allocations could help break the cycle of debt accrued by
landless peasants, and serve as a jump-start to those whose livelihood
was threatened even after the floods receded.
"Land is the main source of wealth in rural Pakistan," explains Amil
Khan, a spokesman for the charity Oxfam, which is assisting the
government with the project. "If you have no land you don't have a
stake in the system."
Cycle of debt
Indeed, seeds and fertilizers are provided by landlords to tenants who
are then forced into high interest rates when repaying their debt.
What's more, it has become the norm for landless farmers to receive
far less than half the profit from the crops, and use most of that to
begin paying their never-ending debt.
The government of Sindh – a province home to Pakistan's biggest
landlords – embarked on this project in an effort to redress this
widening imbalance. But it has taken on a special significance after
the 2010 floods, which destroyed 2 million hectares of crops, pushing
landless tenants deeper into debt.
------------
Khatoon's family still owes some 40,000 rupees ($470) to the landlord
her family has worked under for generations – a princely sum, which
could still take another year to clear – though thanks to her newly
acquired land, she's hopeful that for the first time ever, the cycle of
debt won't begin afresh next year.
After the floods
It's a rare piece of good news to come out of Pakistan after the floods.
According to the United Nations World Food Program, hundreds of
thousands of flood victims are still living in temporary camps or
shelters, while analysts warn of Middle-East style unrest if food
inflation, which has soared to some 64 percent in the past three years,
continues to rise as the government prints money to finance its
deficits.
------
Food insecurity continues, she explains, because "the livelihoods of
the lowest strata are not being addressed. First, they are still
beholden to debt cycles." Second, the low-interest loans from the
government favor large landowners, she explains, because small-scale
farmers usually don't use the banking system.
Dr. Habib says these policies came about because of the influence of
feudal landowners in Pakistan's parliament, who have held sway since
the country gained independence from Britain in 1947. But the move
away from that to the new program is a key step toward undercutting
that influence.
The Sindh government initiative distributes high-risk government land
that runs alongside rivers and tributaries. This land was previously
designated as government-owned flood runoff, but was used by local
landlords. Rich landlords have struck back by filing legal challenges
via local peasants in their employ, to wrest back land that was in their
de facto control.
JULY 1, 2011 10:22 AM
Riaz Haq said...
State Bank tells Pakistan govt to reduce bank borrowing, according
to The Nation:
KARACHI - The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has stated that the size
of the fiscal deficit cannot be reduced unless the government controls
excessive borrowing from the central bank, along with fully
implementing fiscal reforms, according to State Bank’s Third
Quarterly Report on the State of Pakistan’s Economy for FY11
released Monday.
“Desirable revenue generating measures - broadening of the tax base,
improving documentation of the economic system, gradual elimination
of un-targeted subsidies and curtailment of quasi-fiscal operations are
necessary to contain the fiscal deficit to below 4.5 per cent of GDP in
FY12”, said the report.
“These efforts need to be accompanied with better debt management
to increase the tenor of domestic debt and lower risks associated with
debt re-pricing and rollover,” it added.
The report predicted these initiatives will also protect the external
account position and rebuild confidence of the private sector and the
country’s international development partners. More importantly, this
will help in reducing inflation and the crowding out of private sector
credit, thereby facilitating investment, growth and employment
opportunities.
The SBP report further said the impact of the widening fiscal deficit is
clearly visible in the sharply rising domestic debt. The outstanding
government domestic debt reached Rs 5,594 billion (31.8 per cent of
estimated GDP) which is more than double the stock at end-June
2007, the report said and added that this sharp growth in debt stock
is fueling concerns about macro stability and monetary management.
The report showed optimism about the next cotton crop for several
reasons: (a) higher cotton prices during FY10 encouraged farmers to
increase acreage for the next crop; (b) there is a shift towards more
productive (and disease resistive) BT cotton seeds; and (c) water
availability is expected to improve over last year. Rising fertilizer
prices are the key downside risk at the moment.
According to the report, the government has set the wheat
procurement target at 6.57 million tones, which is lower than the
target for the previous year. However, the government may come
under pressure to exceed this target since the market price of wheat
is considerably lower than its support price while banks appear to be
willing to finance the additional procurement. This could feed the
circular debt problem and also crowd out the private sector at the
margin.
“While energy shortages continue to impact a number of industries,
some sectors could face new challenges. For example, the disruption
in the global supply of auto parts from Japan may impact some
manufacturers in Pakistan. In addition, auto manufacturers will face
stiff competition from imported cars as the government has increased
the age limit for used imported vehicles from 3 to 5 years,” it
commented.
http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/
Politics/05-Jul-2011/SBP-asks-govt-to-contain-borrowing
JULY 4, 2011 7:48 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an OXFAM report about land for landless peasant women in
Pakistan:
Oxfam Media Officer, Caroline Gluck, is currently travelling in Sindh
district in Pakistan. She sends us this blog from there:
Mother of five, Sodhi Solangi, can’t stop smiling as she shows me her
new eight acre plot of land. Cotton crops are growing and, a little
further away, building work is almost finished on a large new house
overlooking the fields where her family will soon settle.
Just a few years ago, 42 year old Sodhi, who lives in Ramzan Village,
Umerkot district, in Sindh, Pakistan, was landless. She and her
husband used to work on others’ lands, earning a share of the crops
as payment. Daily life was a struggle.
“We often had problems”, Sodhi recalled. “Sometimes we had money,
sometimes not. It was very hard for us. We’d spend all our days
working on someone else’s farm and our children would be at home.
“We wore torn clothes. But now things are very different. When you
like something, you can go out and buy it. Before, we would have to
ask the landlord to give us money if we wanted anything, but now we
have money in our hands and we can buy things whenever we want.”
“Now we have our own land and are working on our own land. It feels
so good when we work there. When we used to work for others, we
would have to drag ourselves there.”
Her family’s luck changed when Sodhi was awarded eight acres of
land, under a programme run by Sindh’s provincial government,
which in 2008 began redistributing swathes of state-held land to
landless women peasants. The landmark scheme was an attempt to lift
more people out of poverty in the province, where more than two-
thirds of the population work the land, but where bonded labour is
still widely practiced and most land is still held by wealthy and
political influential elites.
Sohdi and her family grew wheat and cotton on their new land. And
they managed to earn enough profit to buy another eight acres.
“We were so happy when we go our land. Now, things are so
different”, said Sodhi. “Whenever we want to eat anything, we can
just buy it. Before, we used to eat dal and potatoes. Now we can buy
all sorts of things – mangos, even chicken.”
“Everyday, we have a lot of food. It’s like a festival of food for us every
time!” she said, laughing.
Meat is an unaffordable luxury for most poor farming families – and
one telling sign of just how much Sodhi’s life has turned around.
Her neighbours and relatives jokingly call her “lady landowner” and
many told me they planned to apply for land during the next phase of
the redistribution scheme.
But Sodhi is one of the lucky ones. Her land, though parched and
lacking proper irrigation, is still cultivable; and, unlike many women,
Sodhi didn’t face legal claims disputing her right to the land from
wealthy landowners or others living nearby.
-----
“The landlord sent officials to threaten the women here saying : ‘We
will destroy your homes and take your tractors. ‘ He also threatened
to send the police to our home”, said Shareefa Gulfazar, who is in her
fifties, and was awarded 4.5 acres of land.
Her daughter, Dadli Kehar, who was awarded 3 acres of land, fears
they are being tricked out of what is rightfully theirs. With the help of
Oxfam’s partner Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI), both
women plan to fight through the courts for what they believe is their
right to the land.
----
Despite the threats and the likelihood of a lengthy legal battle,
Shareefa and Dadli intend to fight for their land. They know that
having their own land can empower them as well as help to feed their
families and ensure they have a better future.
http://www.oxfamblogs.org/southasia/?p=1088
JULY 8, 2011 7:09 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a report by Oxfam's Caroline Gluck posted onReliefweb:
Pakistan did not carry out essential land reforms soon after
independence. As a result, critics say, Pakistan's agricultural and
rural sectors are characterised by highly feudal relationships which
keep many in abject poverty, including bonded labour. It's estimated
that more than 60% of farmers in Sindh are landless, while vast tracts
of farmland are still owned by small wealthy elites who wield huge
political and social influence.
Sindh's land distribution programme is a bold step forward. For the
first time in Pakistan as well as South Asia, state land is being
specifically distributed to landless women peasants, in an attempt to
begin reducing poverty and bringing about much wider social changes
in rural areas.
"It's very important for me to get land"
When I visited the packed kutchari, or open hearing, it was bustling
with activity. Many women and their families had traveled in vans
organised by Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI), a local
partner supported by Oxfam, to ensure as many deserving women as
possible had the chance to register for land. PDI staff were also on
hand to help those unable to read and write to fill out land application
forms; and for weeks earlier had carried out awareness campaigns
about the land distribution programme, including using local radio
broadcasts.
"It's very important for me to get land," said mother of four, Janat,
who currently farms on four acres of land belonging to her landlord.
Her family only receive a quarter of the crops they cultivate - the
landlord takes the rest.
"We want land of our own to pass on to our children; to have our own
house and not live with threats or the fear of having to move. A
landlord can ask us to leave at any time," she explained.
Another lady, Sakina, who traveled with her six-year-old son, chipped
in. "Security is a priority for us. If we own land, we will have a safe
house; no corrupt people can snatch our crops from us... There are
always threats from influential people who can take the land from us."
----
The second phase of distribution is now solely targeting landless
women. It hopes to iron out many of the flaws in the original process,
as well as offering women longer-term packages of agricultural
support including providing seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and technical
help.
Faisal Ahmed Uqaili, co-ordinator of Sindh government's Land
Distribution Programme, acknowledges that about 50% of the original
land allocated had proved problematic. But he says that lessons have
been learnt and around 80% of cases have been settled. Officials were
also under strict orders to ensure greater transparency, he says, to
stop nepotism and corruption. There had been cases reported of
officials trying to sell application papers to the women, or grant land
to people favoured by influential political leaders.
"You need to say the glass is half full instead of half-empty," Faisal
told me. "When you meet these success stories, women are now
making a livelihood for their husbands and families. There is a marked
difference. If change is coming in the life of the people for this allotted
land and for a fairly large percentage of people, then it's the start of
success."
Mother-of-seven Beebul Hassan's face lights up as she holds up a slip
of paper with a signature showing that she's been successful in her
application. She is now the proud owner of four acres of land.
http://reliefweb.int/node/357648
JULY 10, 2011 4:16 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an assessment by Haris Guzdar and Julian Quan of link
between landlessness and rural poverty in Pakistan:
Landlessness consistently comes up as one of the most important
correlates of income poverty in statistical and econometric analyses of
poverty-related data in Pakistan. The World Bank’s Pakistan Poverty
Assessment used data from the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey
(PIHS) 1998-99 to show that the head-count ratio of
poverty among the rural landless was 40.3 per cent, while for those
owning land it was 28.9 per cent. Even the owners of marginal
holdings of less than one acre had a head-count ratio of 31.8 per cent
– or 8.5 per cent points lower than that of the
landless.20 These findings are corroborated by the Participatory
Poverty Assessment which identifies land ownership and access to
land as being among the primary determinants of rural poverty.21
Besides its direct impact on agricultural livelihoods, the distribution of
land ownership in Pakistan also had broader economic, social and
political implications for poverty. The existence of monopolistic
landlords was thought to be associated with the creation of
monopolistic conditions in other markets – such as those for credit,
water, inputs and outputs – and thus created uneven conditions.
Furthermore, locally
monopolistic landlords were thought to adversely affect the quality of
governance of
public institutions, including mechanisms for political accountability.
http://www.rspn.org/publications/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Access
%20to%20Land%20&%20Poverty%20Reduction%20in%20South
%20East%20Asia.pdf
JULY 11, 2011 10:09 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a BBC report of how inflation is hurting Indians and
Pakistanis:
Inflation is the price that ordinary Asians are paying for high growth
rates.
For the less well-off, who spend their money on food and fuel, the
story is even worse. The rise in their household expenses at the
moment is usually higher than headline inflation rates.
According to the International Monetary Fund, last year consumer
prices rose 13.2% in India, 11.7% in Pakistan and 9.2% in Vietnam.
Other Asian nations coped better but the average for developing Asia
was 6% - compared to a 1.6% average rise in prices in advanced
economies.
The speed at which prices are shooting up means that unless people
find ways to save and invest effectively, they in fact get much poorer -
even if Asia is getting richer.
---
The world is jealous of Asia's sky-high growth rates, but for ordinary
people the price of success is corrosive inflation which could eat away
their savings.
"From outside it looks good," says Manasi Pawar. "We're staying in a
big house, paying so much in rent and our kids are going to great
schools."
Manasi, a qualified software worker in hi-tech Hyderabad in India,
recently became a full-time mother. Her husband also works in the IT
industry.
The couple epitomise the emergence of a well-to-do middle class in
Asian countries - except there's one significant snag.
"We were actually losing money," says Manasi.
The couple recently woke up to the fact that inflation rates of nearly
9% meant that their savings were actually disappearing in front of
their eyes.
"We were sitting on a bunch of cash but we didn't know where to put
it, and it's important that we don't let it lie there in the bank - because
a bank doesn't give an interest rate that even matches the inflation
rate," she says.
----
The poorest people in society, who spend disproportionately more on
food, are hit most savagely of all.
But there is a way to fight back against inflation: to save, and to put
some of that money in a part of the economy that rises along with
inflation.
For most people, that means investing in shares or equities. "The only
way you can make money long-term is through an equity linked
product," says Ms Halan.
Money in the bank in India may only earn 3% or 4% - which in fact
means you are losing money. But equity linked funds in this exploding
economy have risen much faster, sometimes as high as 25%.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13959235
JULY 11, 2011 6:35 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a recent Washington Post story on slowdown in India:
....In developments that parallel events in the other Asian
powerhouse, neighboring China, rising prices have forced the
government to steadily tighten monetary policy. Interest rates rose for
the 10th time in 16 months last week.
But business leaders are unhappy. They say the medicine could be
making the economic situation worse.
Much of the inflation in India is a function of higher oil and food
prices, factors that respond poorly, if at all, to higher interest rates.
Instead of depending on the central bank, the government needs to
push through the kind of agricultural reforms and investment it has
been talking about for years, analysts say.
“Government policy should be focused on improving agricultural
productivity, but because that isn’t happening, the burden is falling
more and more on monetary policy,” said Sanjay Mathur, Royal Bank
of Scotland’s Asia emerging markets economist in Singapore.
“Consequently, a number of sectors that shouldn’t be getting hurt are
getting hurt.”
That means growth could fall back toward 7 percent, some economists
warn, still faster than that of any major economy except China but
below what India could achieve — and needs, if it is to pull hundreds
of millions of people out of poverty.
“There is no point substituting one bad policy with another bad
policy,” said Surjit Bhalla, chairman of Oxus Investments. “When the
patient is down, don’t give him another kick in the pants.”
In the early 1990s, India’s government pushed through a series of
economic reforms that unshackled the private sector and laid the
foundation for two decades of strong growth. With that growth has
come rising incomes, an expanding middle class and changing eating
patterns. No longer dependent solely on rice, lentils and grains,
Indians are demanding more vegetables, fruit, eggs, meat and fish.
Local agriculture has not kept pace. Farmers grow the wrong mix of
crops, and about 40 percent of production is wasted before it reaches
market because of inadequate distribution, warehousing and cold-
storage systems.
Add to the mix a rural employment scheme that has boosted the
incomes and appetites of India’s poorest, and a demographic bulge in
hungry 15- to 24-year-olds, and it is little surprise that food prices are
rising steadily year by year.
That in turn has pushed up wages, while production of raw materials
such as coal, ores and cotton is also struggling to keep up with rising
demand. Inflation hit 9.1 percent in May, and the central bank says it
is expected to remain high through at least September.
To get food prices down, the government needs to promote
horticulture and revolutionalize agricultural marketing and
distribution, economists say. Allowing foreign companies such as Wal-
Mart to set up supermarkets in India and invest in cold-storage
facilities, a long-promised but still undelivered policy goal, would also
help, they say.
------------
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last
week underlined the need for a new set of reforms in India to bolster
growth, and no one in the finance or planning ministries seemed to
disagree. The problem is getting it done.
----------
Higher interest rates are choking much-needed investment, which
was almost flat in the first quarter of this year and grew just 4.1
percent year over year, as overall economic growth slipped to 7.8
percent.
The stock market is sliding — shares are down more than 14 percent
this year, making India the worst-performing market in Asia. That in
turn makes it more difficult for companies to raise the capital they
need to invest.
----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/indian-economy-starts-to-
slow-down/2011/06/23/AGvjUBiH_story.html
JULY 17, 2011 6:45 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Bloomberg report on rising consumer spending and growing
FMCG sector in Pakistan:
...“The rural push is aimed at the boisterous youth in these areas, who
have bountiful cash and resources to increase purchases,” Shazia
Syed, vice president for customer development at Unilever Pakistan
Ltd., said in an interview. “Rural growth is more than double that of
national sales.”
--------------
Nestle Pakistan Ltd., which is spending 300 million Swiss francs
($330 million) to double dairy output in four years, boosted sales 29
percent to 33 billion rupees ($377 million) in the six months through
June.
“We have been focusing on rural areas very strongly,” Ian Donald,
managing director of Nestle’s Pakistan unit, said in an interview in
Lahore. “Our observation is that Pakistan’s rural economy is doing
better than urban areas.”
The parent, based in Vevey, Switzerland, aims to get 45 percent of
revenue from emerging markets by 2020.
---------------
Haji Mirbar, who grows cotton on a 5-acre farm with his four
brothers, said his family’s income grew fivefold in the year through
June, allowing him to buy branded products. He uses Unilever’s
Lifebuoy for his open-air baths under a hand pump, instead of the
handmade soap he used before.
------------
Sales for the Pakistan unit of Unilever rose 15 percent to 24.8 billion
rupees in the first half. Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd.’s sales
increased 29 percent in the six months through June to 7.6 billion
rupees, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
-----------
Unilever is pushing beauty products in the countryside through a
program called “Guddi Baji,” an Urdu phrase that literally means “doll
sister.” It employs “beauty specialists who understand rural women,”
providing them with vans filled with samples and equipment, Syed
said. Women in villages are also employed as sales representatives,
because “rural is the growth engine” for Unilever in Pakistan, she
said.
While the bulk of spending for rural families goes to food, about 20
percent “is spent on looking beautiful and buying expensive clothes,”
Syed said.
Colgate-Palmolive, the world’s largest toothpaste maker, aims to
address a “huge gap” in sales outside Pakistan’s cities by more than
tripling the number of villages where its products, such as Palmolive
soap, are sold, from the current 5,000, said Syed Wasif Ali, rural
operations manager at the local unit.
--------------
Unilever plans to increase the number of villages where its products
are sold to almost half of the total 34,000 within three years. Its
merchandise, including Dove shampoo, Surf detergent and Brooke
Bond Supreme tea, is available in about 11,000 villages now.
-------------
Pakistan, Asia’s third-largest wheat grower, in 2008 increased wheat
prices by more than 50 percent as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
sought to boost production of the staple.
“The injection of purchasing power in the rural sector has been
unprecedented,” said Sherani, who added that local prices for rice
and sugarcane have also risen.
----------
Increasing consumption in rural areas is forecast to drive economic
growth in the South Asian country of 177 million people, according to
government estimates.
Higher crop prices boosted farmers’ incomes in Pakistan by 342
billion rupees in the 12 months through June, according to a
government economic survey. That was higher than the gain of 329
billion rupees in the preceding eight years.
-------------
Telenor Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd. is also expanding in Pakistan’s rural areas,
which already contribute 60 percent of sales, said Anjum Nida
Rahman, corporate communications director for the local unit of the
Nordic region’s largest phone company.
OCTOBER 4, 2011 6:09 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Pakistan Today report on motorcycle manufacturing in
Pakistan:
Karachi - To effectively cope with domestic market of over 1.5 million
units and after successful launch of their products in global markets,
the local motorcycle producers are now planning a further investment
of $100-150 million in their existing units.
The motorcycle industry analysts have pointed out that despite
numerous hiccups faced by the economy in recent years, growth in
motorcycle production has been robust at 15 per cent. “A decade
back, the total motorcycle production in Pakistan was around 100,000
units, now the largest player alone is rolling out half a million units
while total production of two wheelers has crossed 1.5 million. They
said that the encouraging aspect in this regard is that industry is on
the path to sustained growth. The local demand for motorcycles is
likely to exceed 2 million units within a year or two,” they added.
“The global response to our quality motorcycles indicate a sustained
and healthy growth in exports as well” they opined, adding that in
fact, the industry experts are seeing themselves as the largest
exporters in the engineering sector. A sustained growth is only
possible due to regular investment and up-gradation of technology in
the motorcycle industry. “The growth we see in motorcycle production
would not have been possible without investment”, they added.
In this regard, Fahad Iqbal CEO, HKF Engineering, makers of Ravi
motorcycles said that the industry now has to fulfill the growing
demand in both domestic and global markets and for this, it needs to
invest over $100 million in the next couple of years to keep abreast
with market needs and demands. He said that all the motorbike
producers having production of 50,000 units or above are now
planning to expand their capacities to cope up with the market
demands.
“There are almost a dozen players that have achieved this production
level” he said, adding that even if each of them invests $10-15 million,
the total investment would cross $150 million. These units have been
regularly making investments to increase their market share but now
they have reached a level where they have to invest in high-tech parts
to ensure that instead of having 90 per cent local components,
Pakistani bikes are produced by 100 per cent local parts, he added.
Market analysts urged that in such an encouraging situation, the
government should refrain from taking steps that might jeopardise
this investment. He said that an investment of $150 million by local
players without any government concession is better than vying for
similar investment over a period of 10 years from a foreign company.
The current players, from Italy, China and Japan, are also in various
stages of developing new models in the 100-150 cc range with the
latest technology, he said. However, he added, they were not offered
any relief even on imports of the environmentally friendly Euro 2
components, which have already been introduced in local bike
production.
“Capacities exist in the country in areas like sheet metal parts and
there is a huge investment need in areas such as die casting for parts
like crank cases and crank covers, electronic parts such as CDI units,
engine parts like ACG, clutch, pistons, shock absorbers (cushions),
plastic parts such as emblems” said Arshad Awan CEO General
Engineering and added that even capacity enhancement and thus
investment will be needed in low-tech parts like head lights, tail lights
etc.
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/08/bike-manufacturers-plan-
heavy-investment/
OCTOBER 28, 2011 11:01 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a NY Times story about soil renewal for agriculture in
Pakistan:
LAHORE, PAKISTAN — In the Pakistani village of Sharbaga, about
130 kilometers from Lahore, a 70-year-old farmer named Mohammed
Ali and his wife plant rice seedlings in a wide field. They stand ankle-
deep in muddy water holding thin green leaves that they deftly press
into the ground. It is hard work under a blazing sun, but this
seemingly mundane task is a significant development that can help
rural Pakistanis improve their lives.
Just a few years ago, this rice paddy and most of the surrounding
fields in this village of 5,000 were barren. For decades the land has
lain fallow because it is saline from poor groundwater.
In 2006, the government of the state of Punjab, traditionally
Pakistan’s breadbasket, and the United Nations Development
Program started an agriculture project to rehabilitate saline farmland
by treating it with gypsum. The Punjab government pays for two-
thirds of the project’s six-year, $17 million budget, while the U.N.
program pays for the rest.
Nearly six million hectares, or about 15 million acres, across Pakistan,
including 2.3 million hectares in Punjab, are barren because of
salinity and water logging. Gypsum’s calcium composition can
neutralize saline soil. Within a season of applying the white powder,
farmers like Mr. Ali had transformed a long-degraded land into a field
that yielded bountiful crops of rice and wheat.
Forty-three percent of Pakistan’s population of 170 million depends on
agriculture for their livelihood and two-thirds of the country’s citizens
live in rural areas. Projects that help improve the lives of people on
the ground are critical to creating stability in Pakistan, and yet these
are often overlooked.
Sustainable agricultural growth is a “necessary condition for rural
growth, employment generation, poverty reduction and social
stability,” said a 2009 report on Pakistan’s agricultural potential by
Weidemann Associates, an economic development consulting firm
near Washington. The report was prepared for the U.S. Agency for
International Development in Pakistan.
The biosaline project in Punjab has already helped lift 50,000
households out of poverty by raising incomes. From 2007 to 2010, the
increase of rice and wheat production on rehabilitated land totaled
417,016 tons, worth $122 million.
Dozens of enthusiastic farmers who gathered to meet a visitor to
Sharbaga this past summer were unequivocal about how the
agriculture project had improved their lives. Before the project, there
were few ways to make money in the village aside from sporadic
manual labor. Farmers owned small parcels of largely infertile land,
and most of the men migrated to cities for work in factories or as
temporary laborers.
Now, all the men said their farming incomes had double or tripled, to
as much as $230 a month, compared with the $90 or less that they
could earn working in a factory, and migration to the cities is
declining.
---------
Reviving agriculture has been life-changing for many rural Pakistanis.
Zeba Bibi, who also cultivates a garden in Liliani village, wants to
know how she can make her mango trees healthier and more
productive. She aspires to one day buy a tractor with extra income
from crops grown on her family’s desalinated land. “We are looking
forward to a better life,” she said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/business/energy-environment/soil
-renewal-puts-pakistans-poor-on-stronger-ground.html
NOVEMBER 16, 2011 5:31 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's Business Recorder report on Pakistan's exporters' participation
in an Abu Dhabi exhibit:
Pakistan makes foray at SIAL Middle East to explore the Gulf food
market and boost exports by attracting local and regional players
participating in the region's premier food fair, which opened Tuesday
at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
Seven Pakistani firms attending the three-day event for the first time
displayed their range of products at the Pakistan pavilion.
They will meet local food importers and regional players to explore
the market, which is expected to cross $50 billion by 2020.
"Pakistan has emerged as an important player of food supplies to the
UAE and Gulf region particularly in rice, meat, poultry, seafood,
fruits, vegetables and spices. We hope SIAL Middle East will facilitate
our exhibitors both in product and geographic diversifications,"
Pakistan Ambassador to UAE Jamil Ahmed Khan told Khaleej Times.
The second edition of SIAL Middle East welcomed 12,000 trade
visitors with exhibitor line-up of more than 500 food, beverages,
equipment manufacturers, suppliers.
Argentina, China, Italy, Iran, France, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan,
Thailand, Turkey, Tunisia, UAE, UK and US also set up pavilions to
exhibit their products to make inroads in the region striving to ensure
food security amid rising inflation across the globe.
According to a new research, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states
will spend $53.1 billion by 2020 on food imports to feed growing
population.
The region, spent $25.8 billion on food imports last year, depending
heavily on imports of agriculture and food products.
Food consumption in GCC is expected to rise at the rate of 4.6 per
cent annually between 2011-15 and reach 51.5 million tonnes per year
during this period.
Pakistan's exports of food products to GCC region stand at $1 billion
and UAE shares around 50 per cent of the total bill.
Appreciating premier event, Pakistan Ambassador said SIAL food fair
has become a truly international brand.
"It’s a great pleasure to be part of this food event for first time. We
welcome valued visitors to the Pakistan pavilion who will have a
chance to meet with our leading food suppliers at this dedicated
business platform in the thriving region of the Middle East."
Pakistani exhibitors displayed rice, juices, assorted pickles, edible oil,
fresh fruits, vegetables, assorted syrups, wheat flour and flour
products among others.
According to Pakistan Embassy officials, Pakistan has the potential to
double its food export to the UAE by adding value to its products.
"Our average unit price of food exported items is comparatively less
than most of the competing countries, but we need to do value
addition by establishing brands in the region," an official said.
http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/business-a-economy/36142-seven-
pakistani-firms-explore-food-market-in-gulf-.html
NOVEMBER 22, 2011 8:50 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here are some excerpts from Forbes cover story (Dec 19, 2011) on
venture money for Pak entrepreneurs:
Novogratz plays the role of auditor because, as CEO and founder of
the Acumen Fund, helping people starts with financial due diligence.
In April Acumen sank $1.9 million into the bank (National Rural
Support Programme Bank in Pakistan) in exchange for an 18% stake,
one small investment in a decadelong experiment in charitable giving.
Instead of shoveling aid dollars to causes or governments that give
away life-sustaining goods and services, Acumen espouses investing
money wisely in small-time entrepreneurs in the developing world
who strive to solve problems, from mosquito netting to bottled water
to affordable housing. It’s a new twist on the old adage about teaching
a man to fish, except that Novogratz wants to build an entire fish
market.
------------
Acumen has given Pakistani farmers the ability to access cash at
credit card rates, versus the loan shark terms of before—a staggering
125,000 clients have tapped the bank for $30 million in new credit
this year. Novogratz’s infusion has also allowed the bank to take
deposits for the first time, introducing the idea of savings, and 6%
interest rates, to a community that has been locked in poverty for
centuries. Since April 10,000 farmers have deposited $7 million in the
bank, which of course has resulted in yet more loans.
----------
Weeks later Novogratz fortuitously got two anonymous gifts of
$500,000 each and took her first trip to Pakistan in January 2002.
Acumen has since invested $13 million there in 12 businesses: Ansaar
Management Co. (affordable housing), Kashf Foundation
(microlending to women) and Micro Drip (agricultural irrigation),
among them. She has also collected $2.7 million from 40 Pakistani
donors and traveled to that country 20 times, turning one of the most
volatile, anti-American populations into a vibrant experiment in
alleviating poverty.
-------------
That’s why I find myself in a rural village 10 miles outside the city of
Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city. Novogratz has come to check
on another investment—and to collect the precious data she hopes to
use in new fundraising. Here on 20 acres, Saiban, a nonprofit
developer, has built homes for an eventual 450 Pakistani families,
most of whom earn $2 to $4 a day. The $4,000 units are 85%
occupied. You see the occasional motorcycle parked in front, where a
few women mill about, talking or hanging laundry.
-----------
These aren’t the answers Novogratz is fishing for. She wants to hear
examples of people using their homes as collateral to get college loans
for their children or amassing a better dowry for their daughters so
they can marry into a more prosperous family. She wraps up the
meeting. “So, the next time I come, you’re going to have some good
metrics for me? ’Cause this is my challenge for the world.” Someone
says, “Inshallah [God willing].”
Novogratz smiles, but shakes her head: “Not inshallah. We’re going to
do it!”
....
http://www.forbes.com/sites/helencoster/2011/11/30/novogratz/4/
DECEMBER 1, 2011 8:52 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Quality seeds essential for agriculture development, reports APP:
Supply of good quality seed is the base of sustainable and developing
economy. "For improving the seed quality Pakistan Agricultural
Research Council (PARC) Scientists are making appreciable efforts in
agriculture research sector", Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman, PARC said
while speaking in a meeting here on Tuesday.
The meeting on "Review of Variety Release and Seed Production
System in Pakistan" was jointly organized by PARC and International
Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The
PARC Chairman further elaborated that seed supplied to farmer is an
important measure for achieving enhanced agricultural production.
"Due to lack of awareness and information about quality seed we are
unable to achieve required productivity, and the bad quality seed has
the potential to threaten food security for whole country", he added.
Foreign delegate from ICARDA, US Department of Agriculture
(USDA), and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
(CIMMYT) were present on the occasion. Provincial presentation
under the guidance of Secretary Agriculture, Government of Punjab,
Arif Nadeem and heads of other agricultural institutes from Sindh,
Balochistan, and Kheyber Pakhtoonkhwa graced the occasion.
Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, who chaired the meeting emphasized on improved
varieties for quality seed that are basic requirements for enhancing
the agriculture productive as well as in livestock sector.
He said that seed certified Cooperation Department also established
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balutistan, Baluchistan as in
functioning Punjab province for betterment of farmers and also
launched a campaign for awareness of quality seed.
During a roundtable meeting of which 30 members participated from
across the country discussed current challenges that are being faced
to the seed sector.
The members of the meeting special focused on accelerating the
transfer of new improved varieties to farmers. The meeting was a
follow-up of a three-week mission sponsored by ICARDA during which
seed specialist Dr Mishael Turner had wide-ranging consultations
with both public institutions and private companies.
He was of the view that the threat posed by epidemics of rust diseases
of wheat had raised awareness about the need to move new improved
resistant varieties rapidly from research institutes to farmers through
the variety release system.
These concerns enabled ICARDA to secure funding from USAID to
compare variety release procedures in different countries.
Discussion among the participants covered many issues affecting
plant breeding and the seed industry in Pakistan and provided an
open exchange of opinions among the stakeholders. Key themes that
emerged from the meeting included the need to strengthen public
private partnerships and the ways to improve capacity building for all
partners of the seed sector.
There was an agreement among the participants that the new
Ministry of National Food Security and Research should take up these
issues as soon as possible.
http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/
Business/14-Dec-2011/Quality-seed-vital-for-agri-development
DECEMBER 13, 2011 8:26 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's Punjab CM pitching his province's potential as the food basket
to the world, reported by Daily Times:
Pakistan is as an emerging country of fully traceable products for the
world to meet food supply demand of increasing global population.
Chief Minister, Punjab, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif at a meeting with
EU ambassadors said Punjab government has diverted substantial
resources to develop science-based, vibrant and internationally linked
agriculture sector that could not only meet the food security
challenges but also compete in domestic as well as in international
markets.
Punjab Government has entered into certification regime to produce
fully traceable agricultural and livestock products to reach high-end
markets of the developed world and to enhance export upto $2 billion
annually, he added.
He said Pakistan has the potential to become 10th largest economy of
the world after Germany. He apprised the distinguished envoys
Punjab government has allocated Rs 2.024 billion for a mega project
to improve supply chain of selected agricultural and livestock
products for improving quality and introducing traceability as per
international market standards and requirements.
He said participation of Punjab in the forthcoming International Green
Week (IGW), Berlin Germany would be an excellent opportunity to
showcase traceable agricultural and livestock products from Punjab
and to project Pakistan.
He said display of traceable agricultural and livestock products at
IGW would open the doors of high-end markets of the world leading
towards generation of tremendous business opportunities for Punjab,
Pakistan.
He said Punjab government was benefiting from Star Farm and Metro
to enhance capacity of our producers, suppliers and traders to boost
exports.
Ambassadors from 18 European Union countries including Lars-
Gunnar Wigemark, EU ambassador to Pakistan were present in the
meeting.
Lars-Gunnar said Punjab has tremendous potential in agriculture and
livestock sectors to get its due share in global trade of food products.
He lauded Punjab government for adopting techniques and standards
required for food safety and quality, and linking its traceable
agricultural products to the global markets.
Arif Nadeem, Secretary Agriculture said 15-20 fully traceable fruits,
vegetables, rice and meat products would be showcased at IGW for
which capacity of about 25 exhibitors has been built for compliance of
Global GAP and International Featured Specifications (IFS) by Star
Farm.
He told METRO would organise Pakistan week in their chains in
Berlin, parallel to the IGW event, therefore, fresh produce to be
brought in Germany would not only be displayed and sold at the event
but also at the Metro stores/chains in Berlin.
He said a vendor selected for the event has prepared thematic design
of Pakistan pavilion, which contains Business to Business (B2B) and
Business to Consumer (B2C) areas for display of products.
The concept, ‘farm to fork’ will be demonstrated through cooked
dishes of traceable products as well at the
occasion, he added.
Rizwan Khan, Vice Chairman, Punjab Board of Investment and Trade
highlighted the significance of International Green Week scheduled
for January 20-29, 2012 at Berlin, Germany and briefed about
aesthetics and media coverage of the event, embassy coordination and
back end support in terms of product development.
The diplomats of EU Countries and others expressed satisfaction on
the level of preparedness of Punjab government for participation in
the forthcoming IGW, Germany.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\12\18\story_18-
12-2011_pg5_7
DECEMBER 17, 2011 9:55 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a story in The Nation on high wheat prices hurting exports:
LAHORE – Pakistan is likely to spoil its surplus wheat owing to its
high price as compared to the international market and substandard
storage system, losing an opportunity to earn millions of dollars
through its export.
Experts feared that fresh imminent increase in the wheat support
price will halt export of wheat and its products. At present, 5.5 million
tons of wheat was lying in stores and open places with public sector
departments while our requirement for next few months was only two
million tons. They said 1.4 million tons of wheat was present only in
Punjab and added that one of the prime reasons of piling up of this
wheat stock was high prices.
Former chairman of the Flour Mills Association, Asim Raza Ahmed,
while talking to The Nation, claimed that wheat prices were already
high in Pakistan as compared to other countries. Supporting his claim,
he said Russia had sold wheat to Egypt and Iraq at the rate of $220 to
$250 dollars per ton which in Pak rupees is Rs 22,000 per ton
compared to Pakistani wheat price of Rs 23,750 per ton. He said that
wheat was playing an important role in agriculture of Pakistan.
Pakistan is not only self-reliant in this crop from the last three years
but also exporting wheat. Pakistan exported 1.7 million tons of wheat
and 1.3 million tons of wheat products this year and was competing
on this front with Russia, Turkey, Australia, India and America. Some
experts were of the view that the government’s poor measures for
utilizing bumper wheat crops may cause it billions of rupees losses
again because of substandard ways of stocking of the commodity in
packing material, which is not recommended by the experts.
The upcoming wheat harvesting season will be overwhelmingly
tremendous as the government increased the wheat support prices to
Rs 1,050 per maund for encouraging the production of the commodity.
But it will also be harmful for the growers, as they will fail to dispose
of their commodity due to high rates.
The country is expected to harvest more than 25 million tons of wheat
in the next season as against the national requirement of 21 to 22
million tons, leaving surplus of about 3 to 4 million tons of wheat for
export market, which should be exported to earn precious foreign
exchange for the country.
http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/
Business/18-Dec-2011/Surplus-wheat--export-in-jeopardy
DECEMBER 18, 2011 5:19 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Pakistan to support declining cotton prices, according toBloomberg:
Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan, the fourth-largest grower of cotton,
may buy as much as one million bales through state- run Trading
Corp. to support prices, the spokesman for the country’s ginners’
group said today.
“Our group is meeting the prime minister today to settle the details of
the deal,” Arshad Islam, spokesman for Pakistan Cotton Ginners
Association, said in a phone interview from Karachi. “We are
expecting to sell one million bales and above. The last time the
government bought from us was in 2005, when they bought 1.6
million bales.”
Cotton prices in Pakistan have declined 42 percent in the financial
year started July 1, tracking weak international rates as demand from
China waned and global production rose. Cotton in New York has
tumbled 59 percent since reaching a record $2.197 per pound on
March 7.
Pakistan is hoping to grow 12.7 million bales in the year that began
July 1 on better yields, the association said on Dec. 13. This is higher
than the 12.2 million bales estimated by the government in October. A
bale in Pakistan weighs 170 kilograms (375 pounds).
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-19/pakistan-may-buy-1-
million-bales-of-cotton-to-support-prices.html
DECEMBER 19, 2011 9:09 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Pakistan's food exports are surging, reports PPI:
ISLAMABAD, (Asia Pulse) - Pakistan's exports of food commodities
surged by 22.73 percent during the first five months of the current
fiscal year to reach at $1.514 billion, Federal Bureau of Statistics
(FBS) reported.
The overall food exports were recorded at 1.514 billion during July-
November (2011-12) as compared to the exports of $1.233 billion
during July-November (2010-11), according to FBS figures issued.
The food products that contributed to positive growth included fish
and fish preparations, exports of which increased from $106.742
million last year to $125.959 million during the first five months of
this year, showing an increase of 15.83 per cent.
Exports of fruits also increased by 13.94 per cent from $77.753
million to $88.595 during the period under reviews, showing positive
growth of 13.94 per cent, the data revealed.
Exports of vegetables and tobacco increased by 28.47 percent and
27.62 per cent respectively during the period under review.
During the month of November 2011, the food exports witnessed
negative growth of 25.85 per cent and 6.93 per cent when compared
to the exports of October 2011 and November 2010 respectively.
The overall food exports during November 2011 were recorded at
$223.360 million against the exports of $301.246 million in October
2011 and $239.984 million in November 2010, the data revealed.
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=152011880
DECEMBER 22, 2011 10:22 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Pakistan produces 13.67 million tones of fruits and vegetables per
annum, according to Online News:
An official told Online on Tuesday out of which about 25 per cent goes
waste, between farms to consumers, while only 4 per cent is exported
at far 41 per cent lower price compared to world average price.
The horticulture sector contributes about 12 per cent to the national
agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and holds great potential
for increasing export of quality horticultural produce, and offering
multiple employment opportunities throughout the supply chain, he
added.
The official said, “However, its growth & profitability is restrained
mainly by lack of proper post harvest management and transport
infrastructure. Improving post harvest management infrastructure
(grading, packing, storage and transport/cold-chain) will help reduce
high post harvest losses, increase production surplus along with
improving shelf life and quality of fresh produce, which will help to
stabilize prices in domestic markets as well as to substantially boost
export to highly lucrative and competitive international markets.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Ministry of Commerce had decided
to establish a “Cool Chain System” under “National Trade Corridor
Improvement Project”. The Cool Chain project is bound act as a
backbone for the development of supply chain infrastructure for
horticulture produce.
http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=187430
DECEMBER 27, 2011 5:53 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a News story on Pakistan missing kinnow orange export target:
Pakistan’s kinnow export target of 300 million tons for this year seems
difficult to achieve due to the hurdles created by the customs
authorities, an exporter said on Thursday.
The Co-chairman of All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters,
Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) told The News that
exporters suffered a loss of $10 million on export of kinnow, as
shipments were delayed because of complete checking of
consignments. “In many consignments planes left and cargo was not
taken,” he said.
CEO Harvest Tradings Ahmad Jawad said Japan may be good market
for Pakistan kinnow in the coming years if Pakistan Horticulture
Development and Export Company (PHDEC) and Ministry of
Commerce make serious efforts to explore this market as we did in
mangoes last year. “The planners need to realise that there are
certain areas where the private sector cannot help exports grow,” he
said.
The import of citrus in Japan has doubled in 2010/11 due to decline in
local production Jawad said quoting a report of the US Department of
Agriculture (USDA). The US and Australian citrus import to Japan has
increased substantially during the period.
The import of fresh produce in Japan increased to 21,406 tons for the
12 months to September 2011, up from 10,797 tons for the same
period a year before, the USDA Global Agricultural Information
Network (GAIN) report said.
The US accounted for the majority of the increased volume, with a 93
per cent jump to 17,650 tons giving it a market share of 82 per cent.
Matching with Japan’s new role as Australia’s largest citrus export
market, Australian imports jumped 136 percent to 2,276 tons. New
Zealand, Chilean and Taiwanese imports also grew over the period.
Japan’s citrus imports are expected to decline by about 12 percent to
19,000 tons in 2011/12, the report added, because of Japanese Mikan
production bouncing back.
“On the other hand Pakistan’s export target for kinnow set at 300,000
tons this year is becoming harder to meet as the season unfolds due to
unlimited blunders,” he said.
The CEO Harvest Tradings further emphasized that starting with
Pakistan’s image building the trade or counsellors should work as
marketing managers fully knowing about the market demand there
and about the quality of products and selling tactics by Pakistan’s
competitors.
They should be very much in touch with the business communities
there, exchange business data and information, provide businessmen
at both ends with proper consultation meant to increase bilateral
trade and investment, help resolve trade disputes between
entrepreneurs of Pakistan and any other country.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?
ID=86002&Cat=3
JANUARY 5, 2012 8:51 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a market research report on Pakistan's agriculture sector:
Pakistan Agribusiness service provides proprietary medium term price
forecasts for key commodities, including corn, wheat, rice, sugar,
cocoa, coffee, soy and milk; in addition to newly-researched
competitive intelligence on leading agribusiness producers, traders
and suppliers; in-depth analysis of latest industry developments; and
essential industry context on Pakistan's agribusiness service.
Pakistan's agricultural output has steadily declined in its contribution
to GDP in the past decade, down from 24.0% in 2000/01 to 20.9% in
2010/11. That said, the sector still employs the largest number of
workers in the population and we expect the industry to remain a
government priority as the country deals with issues of food security
and the vulnerability to natural disasters. Over the long term, we
foresee the dairy, poultry and wheat industries as benefiting the most
from increased investment.
However, despite the existing network of irrigation systems across the
country, we believe that significant improvements in infrastructure
and better supply chains will have to be implemented in order for the
country to reap the full benefits of its fertile soil.
Key Trends
- Rice production out to 2015/16: 7.5% to 7.3mn tonnes. We expect
the country to increase its share in the basmati rice trade as
production expands over our forecast period.
- Wheat consumption out to 2016: 14.2% to 25.3mn tonnes.
Consumption growth will be driven by rising incomes and population
growth, as well as increased access to good-quality milk.
- Sugar production out to 2015/16: 35.1% to 4.8mn tonnes. Large-
scale consumers such as confectioners, candy makers and soft drink
manufacturers account for about 60% of the total sugar demand and
will be the main drivers of growth.
- 2012 Real GDP Growth: 3.8% (up from 2.4% y-o-y in 2011; forecast
to average 3.7% from 2011 to 2016).
- Consumer Price Inflation: 11.2% average in 2012 (down from 13.7%
in 2011).
- Central Bank Policy Rate: 12.0% (lower than 14.0% in 2011)
----------
South Asia rice exporters should benefit the most from the recent rice
trade disruptions out of Thailand. So far, traders report that more
than 100,000 tonnes of rice for export have been stalled as a result of
the country's worst flooding in decades. Some sources estimate that
this could rise to more than 300,000 tonnes. Given these
developments, the spotlight has now turned to South Asia to meet
demand for the grain in the near term.
Despite the recent floods, which destroyed approximately 20-30% of
the sugarcane crop in the Sindh region, we forecast 2011/12 sugar
output from Pakistan at 4.1mn tonnes, 2.5% up from our previous
estimates. This is largely due to an overall 5-8% increase in sugarcane
yields, area harvested and favourable monsoon rains during the
growing season. Sugar crushing is estimated at 82% and sugar
recovery at 8.8%. According to provincial reports, higher sugar prices
farmers received last year, coupled with strong demand from the
industrial sector, have boosted planting in the provinces of Punjab,
Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhawah.
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b503cb/pakistan_agrib
usin
JANUARY 13, 2012 6:46 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Former British foreign secretary David Miliband joins Pakistan private
equity fund as advisor, according toExpress Tribune:
In what appears to be a coup for the fledgling Pakistani private equity
industry, Indus Basin Holdings has managed to get Britain’s former
foreign secretary David Miliband on board as a senior adviser.
“We are delighted to be able to bring on board the expertise of
Miliband who knows the region and its challenges well,” said Indus
Basin founder and CEO Aamer Sarfraz, according to a press release
issued by Miliband’s office. “He shares our conviction that investment
in Pakistan’s agricultural sector can have substantial long-term
impact on the country’s poorest farming communities.”
“I am delighted to be advising Indus Basin Holding, a company that is
investing in Pakistan’s future at a time of such fundamental
importance,” said Miliband in a press statement. “I care deeply about
Pakistan, the development of its economy and its future in the wider
region. IBH is committed to developing an agricultural sector which
has huge potential, but currently lacks investment. I look forward to
working with IBH in building support and investment in Pakistan’s
agricultural capacity and productivity.”
Officials at the company say they had been trying for the past year
and a half to secure the contract with Miliband, who served as
Britain’s foreign secretary between 2007 and 2010. He also served as
Britain’s secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs
previously.
-----------
Indus Basin Holdings is only a relatively recent entrant into Pakistan’s
nascent private equity and venture capital space but already began to
attract a lot of attention for the kinds of big-name investors it was
able to attract in its fund, which is focused on capitalising on
opportunities presented by raising productivity levels in Pakistani
agriculture.
The company’s investors include Tim Draper, the famous American
venture capitalist known for being an early investor in Skype and
Hotmail, and Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza, a Swiss aristocrat
whose family owns the ThyssenKrupp, a German technology
conglomerate with over 670 subsidiaries and 200,000 employees
worldwide.
Indus Basin’s investments currently include Agroventures, a
Faisalabad-based breakfast cereal manufacturer, and Rice Partners, a
company that is focused on contract farming and marketing Pakistani
rice directly to North American and European retailers.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/324941/high-connections-david-miliband-
joins-pakistani-private-equity-firm/
JANUARY 20, 2012 5:16 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Daily Times story on Pakistani Punjab's participation at an Ag
exhibit in Germany:
Diplomats, international economic experts and investors in Berlin,
Germany have termed the exhibition of agriculture items of Pakistan
in Berlin as a great success of Punjab and Pakistan. As many as 21
different products and agriculture items have been displayed in the
exhibition by Pakistani farmers and industrialists.
Addressing a function held in connection with the exhibition, Punjab
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that he was thankful to political
leadership and senior officials of Germany for the warm welcome
extended to him and his entourage.
A large number of European investors, diplomats, Pakistani citizens
and farmers attended the function. The chief minister expressed the
confidence that his visit would help promote export of agriculture
items of Pakistan and strengthening of Pak-German relations. He
praised that the hospitality extended by German government and said
he would always remember the people there.
Former MPA Chaudhry Arshad Jutt, who was also a member of the
delegation, apprised the audience that the exhibition was the result of
the chief minister and his colleagues’ efforts. He said that the chief
minister and his colleagues paid all expenses from their own pockets
for participating in it. Agriculture Secretary Arif Nadeem said that the
Punjab government had allocated Rs 2 billion for promoting export of
agriculture items to foreign countries. He said that due to the steps
taken for this purpose, now farmers had to pay only 30 percent
whereas the remaining 70 percent expenses would be borne by
Punjab government.
The Livestock secretary said that besides export of high quality meat
to European countries and setting up of modern slaughterhouses in
Punjab, production of livestock was also being increased. Punjab
Investment Board Vice Chairman Muftah Ismael said that Punjab
government had sent teams to various countries for the promotion of
exports.
Earlier, the chief minister and his team attended a reception arranged
by the head of multinational company Metro. Shahbaz said that he
and his government were thankful of the Metro International for the
assistance provided for the exhibition of agriculture items in
Germany.
Expressing his views regarding exhibition, Metro International
chairman said that the chief minister and his government had taken a
bold initiative through this exhibition. Dr Andreas Kohler, member
parliament and president chamber of law, said that this exhibition
would play an important role in dispelling the impression of
extremism and terrorism about Pakistan existing in the western
world. He said that Germany was ready for extending all kind of
cooperation to Punjab in arranging more such exhibitions.
Shahbaz also visited a modern slaughterhouse in East Berlin. He
evinced keen interest in various sections of the slaughterhouse. He
said that similar slaughterhouses were being set up in Punjab for
increasing the production and export of meat. The chief minister
further said that like fruit and vegetables, Punjab government is also
taking extraordinary measures for promotion of livestock.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\01\23\story_23-
1-2012_pg7_23
JANUARY 22, 2012 10:22 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an Express Tribune report on Psakistan's fruits and vegetables
exported to Sri Lanka:
A Pakistan trade delegation, visiting Sri Lanka these days, has
proposed setting up a body under the title Horticulture Export
Marketing Access with the objective of facilitating export of
agricultural produce to Sri Lankan markets.
The proposal was floated by the leader of the six-member delegation,
Faqir Nusrat Husain, at a ceremony held in Colombo.
The delegation, sponsored by the Trade Development Authority of
Pakistan, is on a week-long visit aimed at exploring ways and means
to enhance bilateral trade in fruits and vegetables, flowers and other
agricultural produce.
Team members include prominent agriculturalists from across the
country, who have specialised in production and export of various
fruits and vegetables including guava, chikoo, mango, citrus, berry,
potato, dry fruits, gur, tobacco (cigar) and fresh and dry dates.
Faqir Husain told Sri Lankan agriculturalists that Pakistan’s fruits and
vegetables had good quality and were also cheaper, adding Pakistan
provided an ideal alternative to Sri Lanka, which imported these items
from far-off countries.
Eager to reap maximum benefits from the free trade agreement (FTA)
with Sri Lanka, the delegation also planned to explore opportunities in
the tea industry. In this regard, it will visit Kandy to interact with the
local chamber of commerce and the Tea Research Board. It will also
visit tea factories and spice gardens.
The team members plan to hold meetings with Sri Lankan fruit and
dry fruit importers as well as other stakeholders to explore
possibilities of enhancing bilateral trade.
Sri Lanka, which imported $300 million worth of agriculture produce
from Pakistan last year, was the first country to sign an FTA with
Pakistan. Since the agreement came into effect in June 2005, bilateral
trade has strengthened and Pakistan is the second largest trade
partner of Sri Lanka in the South Asian region.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/328188/pakistan-proposes-export-
facilitating-body/
JANUARY 28, 2012 6:47 PM
Riaz Haq said...
"As the green revolution tapered off, a poultry revolution began; in the
late 1970s. Ever since, Pakistan has been gnawing away at broiler
chicken and there’s no turning back", wrote Punjab's director general
of board of investments in a recent Op Ed in Dawn.
In 2011/12 K&N’s expects to produce 80 million layer and broiler
chicks, reports thepoultrysite.com.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, obtaining safe, reliable sources of poultry
feed was an insurmountable challenge in Pakistan. This led Khalil to
set up his own feed mill to produce feed for K&N’s operations at
Karachi in 1971. With the growing need of feed for the integrated
production operations in Central Punjab province and Northern areas
of the country, a feed mill established by a multi-national company at
Lahore, was acquired by K&N’s to take advantage of low-cost feed
ingredients available in the Central part of Pakistan.
The growth of commercial poultry production through the decades
changed the mindset of consumers towards farm raised broilers and
eggs, helped by lower prices and greater availability. Today, Desi
chicken and eggs are produced in lower volumes and considered more
of a delicacy.
Yet the strength of the live/wet chicken market culture, the negligible
overheads of roadside sales – a butcher’s knife costs less than US$1 –
and the reassurance of Halal slaughter remain significant influences
slowing the uptake of processing, says Adil Sattar.
Practical problems, particularly the limited availability of cool chain
facilities and frequent power breakdowns, have to be overcome with
production and distribution of processed products inevitably involving
high overheads.
"Earlier, within our industry, poultry processing was considered a
non-viable poultry business activity as many firms had tried but ended
up closing down their operations," says Adil. "At K&N’s, we
endeavoured to develop the market, and other companies are now
looking to start processing operations."
Today, chicken is the most popular protein source in Pakistan,
primarily through the industry’s growth and success leading to lower
cost and widespread availability, with per-capita consumption about
7kg (15.4lb) per year. The tradition is to eat chicken at home, always
skinless cooked in curries, with rice or barbecued.
Restaurants offer local cuisine including a variety of curries, barbecue
dishes and different types of rice, with a number of upmarket cafes
and restaurants serving western cuisine and many of the international
fast food caterers such as McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Nando’s,
Hardees and Subway also present.
FEBRUARY 4, 2012 6:01 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a News report on meat consumption in Pakistan:
The consumption of poultry meat increased by 239 percent in 11
years from 322 million tons in 1999/2000 to 767 million tons in
2010/11, but it is still only 0.7 percent of the global poultry
production, experts said on Monday.
At a seminar organised by Big Bird to commemorate its 20 years
association with the global poultry giant Hubbard pioneer of poultry
in Pakistan Dr Yaqoob Bhatti in his paper revealed that the value of
poultry infrastructure exceeds Rs300 billion and annual turnover of
commercial poultry is Rs40 billion.
With 105 hatcheries, the annual broiler chick production is 820
million, he said, adding that the commercial egg production is 8.690
billion per annum in addition to 3.742 million production of rural
eggs.
Pakistan Poultry Association former chairman Abdul Basit said that
poultry is the cheapest source of animal protein not only in Pakistan,
but the world over. The average daily animal protein consumption in
Pakistan is only 17 grams per capita, while the average minimum
requirement is 27 grams, he said.
There is a dire need to increase poultry production in the country that
has largely grown without helpful government policies or facilitation,
said Basit. The industry, for instance, has since long been demanding
the government to disallow poultry farm clusters through a law as
chicken farms at least 1.5km apart greatly reduce the risk of spread of
diseases among various poultry flocks, he said.
He said his concern has to relocate its very large chicken farms each
time when place was surrounded with many other farms too close to
his farms. He said he has shifted his major high quality grand parent
farms to Thar deserts. Dr Mustafa Kamal said that the consumption of
mutton has declined rapidly, while that of beef and poultry has
increased.
The share of poultry meat increased from 16.4 percent to 24.3
percent, he said, adding that the consumption of mutton declined
from 0.649 million tons to 0.616 million tons, showing a fall of 20
percent in total meat consumption share.
Still, he said, Pakistan as a meat eating country produces around 50
percent broiler chickens of those produced in India, which has seven
times human population and has a good chance to develop Grand
Parent breeding operations, which has an existing capacity of
producing eight million parent stocks for domestic as well as for
export purposes.
Olvier Behaghel of Hubbard France said that Pakistani poultry
improved efficiencies rapidly during the last 20 year that has helped it
control the cost. Maturing time of a broiler has reduced during this
period from four days to 46 days and from 38 days to 40 days, he said.
The weight gain of the chick at the time of maturity has increased
from 1.5-1.7kg to 1.9 to 2kg and feed consumption by the time of
maturity has declined from 2.2-2.5kg to 1.7-1.9kg. “Pakistan, he said,
is gradually reaching global and Hubbard standards in chicken health,
morality and efficiency in productive processes.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?
ID=70726&Cat=3
FEBRUARY 4, 2012 6:21 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here are excerpts of Express Tribune story on Nestle Pakistan's
record revenue and profits:
Even as the economy continues to grow sluggishly, Nestle Pakistan
announced another year of record breaking profits, which grew by
13.5% to reach Rs4.7 billion – or about Rs102.94 per share – on the
back of a 26% increase in revenues, which reached Rs64.8 billion.
----------
Managing Director Ian Donald – a South African national who has
been with the global parent company for 40 years – believes the key
for Nestle to grow in Pakistan is primarily by growing the packaged
foods market.
“Take the example of yoghurt. We are 80% of the market when it
comes to packaged yoghurt. But that packaged segment is only 2% of
the total market,” he said in an interview with The Express Tribune.
“So it doesn’t really matter what our market share is. We need to
grow the whole packaged segment.”
A key constraint to growing that segment, however, seems to be the
limited purchasing power of the ordinary Pakistani consumer. “Our
single biggest challenge is how to get the right quality product to the
consumer at a price that they can afford,” said Donald.
Over the past year, inflation has not helped matters. While Nestle’s
global food portfolio is highly diversified, in Pakistan it focuses heavily
on milk and dairy products. As milk prices continue to rise by more
than 20% a year, the company has not been able to pass on the
entirety of that effect to its customers. This is at least partially
reflected in its gross profit margins, which shrank by 1.2% to 25.8% in
2011. Energy costs have continued to go up as well. Nonetheless, the
company was able to grow the volume of products sold by a healthy
12%.
-----------
“We have a lean mindset,” said Giuseppe Bonanno, the company’s
head of finance and control in Pakistan. The company’s operating
costs are certainly lower than most of its competitors. For instance,
Nestle’s logistics costs are about 12% of revenues, compared to
between 18% and 19% for both Unilever Pakistan and Engro Foods,
two of its biggest competitors. Part of the advantage is economies of
scale: Nestle about as big as both of its rivals combined. But part of it,
said Donald, is that the company invests heavily in its infrastructure.
In 2011, the company invested about Rs8.9 billion in building up its
capacity.
Nestle already has a gigantic infrastructure in Pakistan. The company
collects milk from over 190,000 farmers spread out over an area of
about 145,000 square kilometers.
Another part of its growth strategy seems to be augmenting and
developing its existing brands rather than adding newer brands to its
line-up in Pakistan. “We cannot afford to invest in too many brands
because we cannot grow all of them,” said Donald.
However, the company has introduced brands such as Nido Bunyad,
which is a powdered milk product targeted to the rural consumer at a
price that is competitive with non-packaged milk.
The rural economy seems to be a key market for Nestle. “It seems to
us that the rural economy is growing faster than the urban economy.
However, we are also consciously driving growth in the rural
markets,” said Donald.
The company identifies its fastest growing markets as Peshawar,
Multan and areas that it describes as “peri-urban”, areas that lie on
the outskirts of most large cities and form a part of its metropolitan
area.
Nestle’s growth in Pakistan has been a mixture of both organic as well
as through acquisitions. When asked about whether Nestle might
pursue acquisitions in the future, Donald replied: “We are always
open to considering opportunities.”
As part of its plan over the next three years, the company will spend
about 320 million Swiss Francs in growing its presence in Pakistan.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/333671/despite-stellar-earnings-nestle-
pakistan-aspires-for-better-results/
FEBRUARY 8, 2012 9:02 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a News report on US presence at the Karachi Agri Expo 2012:
The US Ambassador Cameron P Munter on Saturday said that the
United States is committed to the development of Pakistan’s
agricultural sector.
The United States is working with government and private sector
authorities to improve productivity and food security, and to increase
farmers’ incomes and stimulate overall economic growth, he said
speaking at the Dawn Pakistan Agri-Expo.
“This event highlights the collaborative efforts in agriculture between
our countries that spans more than five decades and continues today,”
the US envoy said.
The expo, a two-day national agricultural exposition supported by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID), showcases new agricultural
farming technologies, products, and development programs.
The US Ambassador Cameron P Munter, Karachi Consul General
William Martin, and the US Embassy Agricultural Counsellor Todd
Drennan highlighted US-Pakistan agricultural cooperation during a
visit today to the Dawn Pakistan Agri-Expo.
Ambassador Munter and Consul General Martin toured the USA
Pavilion, where they met with companies that are implementing
USDA- and USAID-funded programmes and are importing US
agricultural products.
The USA Pavilion, under the theme of ‘Linking US Agriculture to the
World’ highlights US-Pakistan institutional linkages and partnerships,
which are introducing new technologies, farm equipment, and farming
practices to the Pakistani agricultural sector.
The exposition, taking place in Karachi on February 11 and 12 and in
Lahore on February 17 and 18, brings together exhibitors and
participants from across Pakistan and the world from various business
sectors involved with agriculture production and distribution.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?
ID=92246&Cat=3
FEBRUARY 11, 2012 10:23 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's Part 1 of National Geographic story about Pakistan's heartland
of Punjab:
The fertile alluvium deposited by the mighty Indus river and its
tributaries in Pakistan have given the country’s demographic
heartland of Punjab an agrarian edge. Yet, errant canal planning and
over-pumping from tube-wells have degraded vast tracts of land.
Salinity and water-logging afflicts around 6.3 million hectares of land
and an additional 4,000 hectare of land gets affected every year
(estimates from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan,
November 2011). Climate change and conflicts over hydroelectric
impoundment infrastructure have also made the arable lands of the
country further vulnerable to flooding, as we saw in the epic floods of
2010 when an estimated 20 million people were displaced.
Amidst all these challenges to the farming economy of the country,
there are glimmers of hope that Pakistan’s elite are trying to
reconnect with the land in sincere and innovative ways. During my
last trip to Lahore – the capital of Punjab province and Pakistan’s
second-largest city (after Karachi), I was heartened to see urbanites
retreating to farms in the surrounding countryside. Previously such
farms were merely ornamental playgrounds of wealthy families but
now there is a growing interest in these ranks to reconnect with the
earth for societal good.
Zacky Farms, just outside Lahore, is the brainchild of Zafar Khan, a
Caltech-educated software engineer who runs one of the most
successful information technology companies in Pakistan named
Sofizar. What started off as a recreational venture is now a side-
business supplying sustainably produced organic milk, vegetables and
meat to nearby Lahore suburbs. The farm is modeled on a cyclical
model of minimal wastes and multiple product usage. The cows are
fed pesticide-free oats, clover and grass and their manure is used to
fuela biogas plant which runs the dairy facility. In an era of electricity
load-shedding, such an alternative source of energy at a local
industrial scale is immensely valuable to replicate as a development
path. The residue of the biogas is used to fertigate the fodder fields
and vegetable tunnels, which along with green manuring obviates the
use of fertilizers. Free-range chickens grace the fields and there is
even a fish farm on site. Zafar and his Ukrainian-born wife are
committed to sharing their experiences with other farming
entrepreneurs in the country.
Further south in a more rural and remote part of Punjab, famed writer
and erstwhile lawyer, Daniyal Mueenudin, maintains a mid-size farm
which is exemplifying other kinds of innovations. The farm does not
boast ecological farming practices, apart from tunnel farming that can
help with land conservation and humidity control. However, Daniyal
has changed the social landscape of his area through implementing a
“living wage” for all his employees. Noting the high level of inequality
in Pakistan’s hinterland, the Yale-educated former director of the
university’s Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic, is practicing what he
preached. He also owns a farm in Wisconsin and could have a
comfortable life in the States but his social obligations keep him
ensconced in Pakistan for most of the year.....
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/23/farming-
pakistan/
FEBRUARY 23, 2012 7:49 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's Part 2 of National Geographic story about Pakistan's heartland
of Punjab:
...Raising the wage several-fold for works and farm manager, and also
offering bonus incentives for performance, has led to positive
competition that can help to erode the feudal levels of income
disparity which exist in this part of Pakistan. At the same time,
Daniyal is also committed to providing new livelihood paths for the
agrarian workers as automation reduces farm employment in some
areas. He has has fully funded a school and provided a merit-based
scholarship for advanced degrees to students from the nearby village.
One of the children from this school (the first in his family to even go
to school) is now making his way through medical school in Lahore!
Zafar and Daniyal’s stories of commitment to constructive farming for
social and ecological good may appear to be outliers but they are
catching on and provide hope to a country which is all too often
shadowed by despair. In the suburbs of Islamabad, tax incentives and
planning rules to encourage farming by urbanites are leading to a
growing culture of reconnecting with the land in residential farms. In
rural areas, the disaster caused by the floods of 2010 brought forth
numerous aid agencies with new ideas for sustainable farming. The
Pakistani diaspora, often known in the West for professions ranging
from taxi-driving to engineering, may well find opportunities for
reconnecting to their land in far more literal ways. With growing
commitment from land-owners it just might be possible to use the
existential shock of recent natural disasters that have befallen the
country into a proverbial opportunity for positive change.
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/23/farming-
pakistan/
FEBRUARY 23, 2012 7:50 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's some info on Nestle's rural entrepreneurship program in
Pakistan:
The Small Entrepreneur Development Project was launched in March
2009 from a partnership between Nestlé Pakistan Ltd. (as
implementing partner) and the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation (SDC) which has co-funded the project. Its aim is to
contribute to the improvement of economic opportunities, income
generation and food security in rural areas of the country. Livestock
and dairy farmers are provided with training and assistance to both
enhance their skills as small entrepreneurs and improve their market
linkages. Training is provided through the Nestlé Agricultural
Services in the location of training farms specially dedicated to the
project.
Current dairy farming constraints
The livestock and dairy sector represent 11% of Pakistan's GDP.
There are 10 million farming families and 50 million cattle heads in
Pakistan, out of which 7 million farming families (approx 35 million
people) live in the Punjab Province. Many of them are landless
farmers.
The lack of sustainability of dairy farming in Punjab is due to the lack
of training and skills, poor infrastructure, poor breeds, lack of good
fodder management, lack of support mechanisms for the farmers, lack
of financial services and expertise in running small enterprises.
It is then no surprise that there are no commercial dairy farms or
formal dairy farming structures in Pakistan. The majority of these
farmers are domestic dairy farmers with only 2 to 3 cows or buffalos.
All this amounts to poverty driven farmers, no socio-economic growth
in the dairy sector, poor living conditions and very low social
standing, particularly for women. 48% of the farmers are women. As
part of their domestic chores, they care for the livestock but are not
socially acknowledged for these services and are kept out of the
decision making processes. Hence there is a strong need to initiate a
development programme targeted specifically at the women which the
Nestlé-UNDP Partnership Programme tackles with great success (see
specific project description).
While the demand for milk and meat is growing by 5%, the actual
supply increase represents less than 2% per annum. There is a large
potential for farmers to play a positive role in the development of the
dairy sector in Pakistan's economy. Regretfully, very few initiatives
provide farmers with livestock and dairy training at the grass root
level which could strongly link rural development to economic
growth....
-----------
Nestlé Pakistan has established the training facility over 103 acres of
leased land as an investment for the development of the dairy sector
and to work towards sustainable farming and an improved rural
economy - benefiting the farmers through increased prosperity and
food security. Furthermore, this win-win community development
model is designed to sustain itself in the following manner:
Institutional linkages with the Government departments and financial
institutions once established will sustain beyond the life of the project;
capacities of the farmers once built shall yield economic benefits and
further contribute to generate employment; training modules
developed and tested by Nestlé Agri-Services will continue to be used
beyond the life of the project.
http://www.community.nestle.com/rural-development/asia/pakistan/Pa
ges/small-entrepreneur-development-project.aspx
FEBRUARY 29, 2012 9:22 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Businessweek story on Fatima Fertilizer investing
in Africa:
Fatima Fertilizer Co. (FATIMA), Pakistan’s third-biggest maker of the
farming ingredient, plans to build a new factory in Africa at an
investment of about $1 billion to tap international markets.
The company expects to finalize plans this year to set up the factory,
Fawad Ahmed Mukhtar, chief executive officer, said in a telephone
interview from his Lahore head office. The fertilizer maker may
consider forging a partnership by investing $200 million, he said,
without elaboration.
Fatima registered its American Depositary Receipts in New York in
March 2011 to raise its profile and expand overseas, aiming to
overcome a chronic gas shortage at home. Pakistani fertilizer makers
including Engro Fertilizer Ltd. and Fauji Fertilizer Co. get as much as
50 percent less gas than they need to run their factories, curbing
production, according to Foundation Securities Pvt. in Karachi.
Fatima’s planned Africa factory may have a capacity to produce more
than 1 million tons of fertilizer because the company expects to get
“the best gas rates,” Mukhtar said.
“Besides local sales, we are also looking to export from there to
Pakistan, Brazil and the markets in Africa,” Mukhtar said yesterday.
To set up the plant Fatima is considering countries including Nigeria,
Algeria, Tanzania and Mozambique, where there is “enough gas,
which means that they will offer us good rates and good terms,” he
said.
Fatima rose 1.6 percent to 24.90 rupees at the close in Karachi
yesterday. The stock has almost doubled in the past 12 months,
compared with a 10 percent gain for the Karachi Stock Exchange 100
Index.
Diversifying Risks
Companies in Pakistan including Lucky Cement Ltd., the nation’s
biggest producer of the building material, are expanding overseas to
cut dependence on their home market. Lucky will begin construction
of a cement factory in Congo by June through a joint venture.
Expanding overseas will help companies including Fatima to diversify
risks, according to Taha Khan Javed, manager research at Foundation
Securities.
“Pakistan is facing a severe shortage of gas, so that takes away the
feasibility to establish a plant here,” said Javed. “From Africa they can
export anywhere in the world.”
The company will rely on a mix of its own cash, bank loans and
investment from partners to fund the new plant, Mukhtar said. Fatima
posted a net income of 4.12 billion rupees ($45 million) in the year
ended Dec. 31, the first annual profit in four years after it started
commercial operations in July.
The Danish Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries and
Haldor Topsoe AS, a Denmark-based maker of catalysts, have agreed
to partner Fatima and will also help arrange funds, Mukhtar said,
without specifying if they will collaborate on the African factory.
ADR Trading
“We are looking at projects internationally for setting up new plants
and starting production in two to three years,” said Mukhtar.
Depending on the “opportunity at hand,” Fatima may set up more
than one plant overseas, he said.
Fatima Fertilizer’s ADR, each representing 50 local shares, may begin
trading in the over-the-counter market in New York by June, Mukhtar
said. Bank of America Corp. is the market maker, Bank of New York
Mellon Corp. is the depositary, and Standard Chartered Plc is the
custodian bank, he said.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-13/fatima-fertilizer-
plans-1-billion-africa-plant-to-grow-overseas
MARCH 13, 2012 5:33 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an APP report on Pak food exports so far this fiscal year:
The exports of fish and fish preparations surged by 14.69 percent
during the first eight months of current fiscal year (2011-12) against
the corresponding period of last year.
The exports of fish and fish preparations were recorded at $195.284
million during July-February (2011-12) as against the exports of
$170.274 million during July-February (2010-11), according to data of
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
However, in terms of quantity, the fish exports witnessed nominal
increase of 0.34 percent by going up from 74,265 metric tons to
74,518 metric tons.
On month-on-month basis, the seafood exports also witnessed positive
growth of 13.88 percent during February 2012 when compared
to the same month of last year.
The fish exports during February 2012 were recorded at $21 million
against the exports of $18.441 million during February 2011.
However, as compared to the exports of $21.401 million recorded
during January 2012, the exports during February witnessed negative
growth of 1.35 percent, the data revealed.
In terms of quantity, the fish exports increased by 5.57 percent in
February 2012 when compared to the exports of February 2011,
however decreased by 2.62 percent when compared to the exports
of January 2012.
The overall food exports from the country witnessed nominal increase
of 0.59 percent during the first eight months by going up from $2.601
billion during July-February (2010-11) to $2.616 billion in July-
February (2011-12).
The major food products that witnessed positive growth in exports
included.
The food products that witnessed increase in exports during the
period under review included rice (other than basmati), exports of
which increased by 2.91 percent, fruits (15.02%), leguminous
vegetables (1,315%), tobacco (37.85%), oil, seeds, nuts and kernels
(59.84%), meat and meat preparation (16.46%) and other food
products
(45.80%).
The commodities that witnessed negative growth in exports included
basmati rice (17.78%), vegetables (36.69%), wheat (53.22%) and
spices (1.49%).
The overall exports from the country during the period under review
witnessed negative growth of 0.48 percent by going down from
$15.263 billion to $15.189 billion.
Imports into the country, during the period, increased by 16.36
percent by going up from $25.600 billion to $29.788 billion.
Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the first eight months of
the current fiscal year was recorded at $14.599 billion, against the
deficit of $10.337 billion last year, showing an increase of 41.23
percent.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-42262-Pakistan-seafood-exports-
surge-by-15pc-in-8-months
MARCH 30, 2012 10:52 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Pak Observer report on Pak fishing industry exports:
Karachi—Holland’s Ambassador to Pakistan Mr Gajus Scheltema
disclosed that a powerful lobby of international fish exporters was
strongly opposing the exports of fish from Pakistan to the European
Union countries. Talking to mediamen in Karachi he said that the
international fish exporters lobby was actively involved in creating
obstacles in the way of Pakistan’s fish exports to EU nations.
When asked to name the lobby, the Dutch Ambassador said that the
leading international exporters do not want to see fish exports from
Pakistan. He, however, that Netherland was assisting the Balochistan
government to develop Pasni Port and Fish Harbour that would help
Pakistan to enhance fish exports to European Union countries. He
pointed out that a firm, engaged in the exports of fish, had demanded
license to export fish from Pasni to EU.
Mr Scheltema pointed out that the government of Japan had provided
a grant of Rs800 million for the rehabilitation of Pasni Fish Harbour in
Balochistan. Holland is engaged in rehabilitation of the harbour so
that it meets the required international standards to export fish to EU
and other countries in the world.
He said that the Japanese grant would be utilised for the procurement
of a dredger; maintenance and dredging of the harbour; and extension
and improvement of the breakwater.
Holland’s Ambassador further stated that his country could invest in
agriculture, dairy and livestock in Pakistan. He said that Holland is
one of the leading producers and exporters of dairy and livestock
products in the world. He said that Holland and Pakistan should
explore the agriculture, dairy and livestock sectors for mutual
investment. Some Dutch companies are willing to explore avenues of
investment in these areas in Pakistan and the companies could export
agriculture, dairy and livestock products to European Union.
He said that Holland was keen to enhance trade with Pakistan and
also supporting Pakistani business people who seek to export to the
Netherlands. Scheltema said that their ‘Centre for Promotion of
Imports from Developing Countries’ waseducating Pakistani exporters
for improvement of their products to export level quality.
He said that Pakistan has a huge potential in agriculture and food
processing sector and Holland is planning to invest in these sectors.
He also pointed some trade hurdles in importing of cows and cattle
from Netherlands to Pakistan.
He further said that Holland was willing to help government of
Pakistan in promoting the wind energy in the country. He said that he
had recently met the Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed
Naveed Qamar and apprised him of the Dutch companies interest in
developing wind energy projects in Pakistan.
Mr Scheltema said that Holland had strongly supported Pakistan in
getting the GPS+ facility from the European Union that would help
this country to enhance its textile exports share to EU markets. He
said Holland was enjoying very cordial relationship with Pakistan and
he was making efforts to strengthen the bilateral ties between the two
countries. Holland plans to earmark 30 million euros for clean
drinking projects in urban cities and some other water-related
projects in Pakistan, he said. He said Holland had already worked in
various water sector projects and keen to invest in water
management, flood control, clean drinking water, waste water
treatment and de-silting projects.
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=147970
APRIL 1, 2012 8:31 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's Khaleej Times on Pakistani food brands in UAE:
Pakistani food companies made inroads to the UAE market at the
Gulfood exhibition in February. The major groups held fruitful
meetings at the exhibition and they will start launching their products
from June onward, according to industry insiders.
K&N’s Foods (private) Limited, a leading name in poultry and meat
products in Pakistan, is expected to market its products in the UAE by
June. Brands in edible oil like Sufi Cooking Oil and Habib Oil, leading
herbal trademark Qarshi and confectionery products leader Hilal,
among others are also planning to enter the UAE food market this
year.
“We are in talks with some leading groups and distributors to launch
our brand in the UAE and we are confident to market our products by
June,” Atiq R. Siddiqui, K&N’s head of exports, told Khaleej Times.
K&N’s Foods, which started its operation in 1964, is the first
international brand in recent years, which has given permission to
export frozen items to the UAE. The brand is considered a beacon for
Pakistan’s poultry industry and its halal processed chicken, ready-to-
cook and fully-cooked products are popular among domestic
consumers.
“We have established the brand in Pakistan and now the company is
ready to make a foray into the international market. The UAE will be
the first international and regional market for K&N’s products,”
Siddiqui said.
In reply to a question, he said Gulfood is a premier event for food
industry. It is considered a good opportunity to interact with
stakeholders to promote the brand and explore new business
opportunities, he said.
“We showcased our products at Gulfood and received a good response
from local businesses. We are in discussion with some leading names
to launch our brand in the UAE market,” he said.
As many as 23 Pakistani companies in the food business attended the
Gulfood exhibition in Dubai this year and displayed their full range of
products in Pakistan pavilion. The exhibitors had fruitful meetings
with the local importers and indenters and most of them are
optimistic to launch their products at competitive price in the Gulf
markets.
------------
Pasha said the volume of Pak exports to the UAE touched $1.8 billion
in 2011 out of which food group exports were to the tune of $500
million. “There is, however enough room to expand keeping in view
the UAE’s global food imports of more than $7 billion annually,” he
said.
In reply to a question, he said some projects in food business are in
the pipeline that will further strengthen the bilateral trade relations.
“There are a few joint ventures ranging from farmland acquisition to
joint production of commodities, fruits and vegetables and building of
state-of-the-art food silos are in the pipeline,” Pasha said.
Asif Jabbar, director and group chief executive of Alif Investments,
welcomed the entry of Pak brands into the UAE market.
“We have successfully launched many Pakistani brands including the
Junaid Jamshed and Meat One. It is good to see that more Pakistani
brands in food business are set to enter the local market,” he said and
cautioned the new entrants about the stiff competition in the local
market.
“The marketing of a new brand in the UAE is not an easy job amid
competition from international and regional brands. One should be
aware of marketing cost and other expenses in an international
commercial city like Dubai to find place in the competitive market,”
Jabbar concluded.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/biz/inside.asp?xfile=/data/business/2012
/April/business_April110.xml§ion=business
APRIL 7, 2012 4:37 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a BR report on State Bank of Pakistan's ag loans target for the
year:
The State Bank of Pakistan has set Rs 285 billion target for
disbursement of agriculture loan among small farmers for current
fiscal year.
Director Development Finance of SBP Karachi, Dr Muhammad Saleem
said this while addressing "Agricultural & Industrial Awareness
Convention-2012" here on Tuesday.
Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Higher Education Minister Qazi Muhammad
Asad Khan participated as chief guest in the convention organised by
the State Bank, Rawalpindi in collaboration with commercial banks
and insurance companies.
More than 120 stalls of handicrafts, clothing agriculture equipment,
handmade beautiful jewellers, banking products and food, etc, were
set up by women from various organisations and banks to promote
rural culture and potential of trade in these areas.
Horse dancing and culture displays made this event more beautiful.
More than 1500 people including students, farmers and women
participated in the convention.
Chief Manager State Bank Akhtar Raza, Group Head of United Bank
Ltd (UBL) Jameel Ahmed, Vice Chancellor Hazara University Haripur,
Professor Dr Sahawat and others were also present on the occasion.
Dr Muhammad Saleem said the SBP had set Rs 270 billion agriculture
loans target for small farmers in the previous financial year while
actually Rs 260 billion loan was distributed among farmers.
He said that agri loan is being given to farmers through one-window
operation.
He said farmers could give better output if banks provide them loan in
time on easy instalments.
"Agriculture is backbones of our economy and its share in Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) is 21 percent.
Livelihood of 47 percent people is directly or indirectly is linked with
agriculture sector.
The SBP is playing pivotal role in progress of agriculture sector by
providing loans especially to small farmers," he said.
Dr Muhammad Saleem said the SBP formulates policy in consultation
with all the stakeholders including farmers.
The SBP changes its policy with passage of time by keeping the
necessities of farmers in view.
Addressing the convention, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Higher Education
Minister Qazi Muhammad Asad Khan said land of Haripur is fertile
and the farmers of this area can give maximum production if they
were given some financial support for seed, fertiliser and tractor and
other inputs necessary for increasing production.
He urged the SBP to set up its branch in Haripur for promotion of
small industries and agriculture sector.
About the Haripur University, He said Haripur has also become a part
of the community of 120 universities.
"The government should increase budget for education to 4% of GDP.
The quality of education can only be improved by increasing the
budget for this sector.
Group head of UBL, Jameel Ahmed said the State Bank has good legal
framework and governance in the region.
The employees of the Bank are servants of people.
"It is your money and used to benefit you," he added.
Vice Chancellor Hazara University Haripur, Professor Dr Sahawat
said knowledge-based economy and use of latest technology is of vital
importance for progress of agriculture sector.
http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1175388/
APRIL 10, 2012 6:01 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Reuters' report on rice exports from India & Pakistan
stabilizing prices:
A rebound in rice supply from India and Pakistan this year will calm
fears over food inflation faced by poor nations as cheaper grain from
the South Asian neighbours corners a third of the global market.
South Asia’s ample grain stocks will help it undercut key traditional
suppliers, as a populist scheme in Thailand prices its grain out of
competition and high export floor prices in Vietnam deter some
buyers.
India is likely to emerge as the world’s second largest rice exporter in
2012, selling around 7 million tonnes, while Pakistan’s shipments are
expected to bounce back to about 4 million tonnes amid the high
prices of rival Thailand.
“Indian rice supplies will act as a price stabilisation factor against
high global food inflation,” said Tajinder Narang, advisor at a New
Delhi-based trading company Emmsons International.
Global food prices rose in March for a third straight month with more
hikes to come, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said
last week, with higher prices of oilseeds and grains contributing to
the rise.
The FAO index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of
cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 215.9 points in
March, up from 215.4 points in February.
Although the index level is below its Feb. 2011 peak of 237.9, it still
exceeds the level during the 2007-08 food price crises that triggered
global alarm.
After benchmark Thai white rice prices climbed to a record above
$1,050 a tonne in May 2008, several nations, including India, put a
ban on exports.
That left buyers scrambling for supplies, unleashing concerns over
food inflation and the threat of unrest in poor nations in Africa and
Asia. But high stock levels in India and Pakistan could help avert a
replay this year.
---------
India’s exports this year are expected to jump 50 per cent from last
year’s shipments of 4.6 million tonnes, according to data from the US
Department of Agriculture. India had exported 2.2 million tonnes in
2010.
Neighbouring Pakistan, which is expected to ship 3.8 million to 4.0
million tonnes in 2012, or an increase of at least 19 percent from 3.2
million last year, is cracking new markets with the sale of 200,000
tonnes to China and unconfirmed exports to the Philippines through
unofficial channels.
“When we got a setback from Iran, our exporters looked elsewhere
and that has led to diversification,” said Javed Agha, chairman of the
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, referring to the impact of
tightening Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme.
In Thailand, prices have spiked due to a government intervention
scheme due to run until the end of June, that is paying farmers 15,000
baht for a tonne of paddy, lifting Thai rice export prices to $500-$560
per tonne....
http://dawn.com/2012/04/11/india-pakistan-rice-supplies-to-ease-
agflation-fears-wa/
APRIL 11, 2012 8:14 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a PakistanToday report on SBP's efforts to increase funding of
agriculture and financial literacy among farmers:
Presiding over a one-day ‘Farmers’ Financial Literacy & Awareness
Program on Agricultural Financing,’ which was jointly organized by
State Bank and Habib Bank Ltd. today at NRSP Training Center,
Bahawalpur, he said the agriculture sector has a key role in country’s
economy and stressed the need for making necessary finances
available to farmers for multiple cropping activities. He outlined
SBP’s efforts for creating awareness amongst the farming community
and developing capacity of commercial banks through its various
training and awareness programmes.
--------------------
Dr. Saeed Ahmed, Head, Agricultural Credit and Microfinance
Department, SBP said the programme is aimed at creating awareness
among the farming community about agriculture financing products &
services offered by banks, money management techniques and lending
procedures, documentations, etc. Besides, it would also develop
capacity of agriculture field officers of banks in agri. financing and
synergize the efforts of all stakeholders including policy makers,
executing agencies, service providers & farming community to
improve access to agricultural credit, he said, adding that SBP’s
promotional initiatives and policy interventions have translated into
around 200 percent increase in the flow of credit to the agriculture
sector from Rs. 137.4 billion in 2005-06 to Rs. 263 billion in 2010-11.
However, he pointed out, despite this encouraging growth, the
disbursement to the agriculture sector was around 40% of the total
estimated credit requirements. ‘SBP has planned to increase the
disbursement to 70-80 percent during the next five years covering 3.3
million borrowers by adopting a multipronged strategy,’ he added.
The inaugural session was followed by a technical session for the
agricultural credit staff of banks in which senior officials of SBP and
HBL made detailed presentations on dynamics of agriculture finance
and related policies. The purpose of this session was to train the
agriculture finance officials of banks enabling them to conduct
farmers’ financial literacy programs at their end and to share the best
practices in agriculture lending with the participants.
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/04/12/news/profit/agriculture-
can-farm-out-economy/
APRIL 11, 2012 6:39 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a News report on rising sales of cars, motorcycles and tractors
in Pakistan:
Sales of automobiles in the first nine months (July-March) of the
current fiscal year increased 15 percent to 128,576 units, compared
to 111,852 units same period last year, according to the data released
by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA).
According to the data, in the third quarter (Jan.-March) of this year,
automobile sales increased 7 percent to 46,632 units from 43,753
units in the correspondent quarter last year. When compared with the
second quarter of this year, sales in the third quarter showed an
impressive growth of 22 percent.
Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) continued to depict strong sales
showing a growth of 32 percent in the July-March period to 81,360
units compared with 61,693 units in the same period last year.
Analysts attribute strong growth to the yellow cab scheme announced
by the Punjab government. In March 2012 alone, PSMC sales stood at
11,198 units, up 16 percent from same month last year and 12
percent from February 2012.
On the other hand, Indus Motor Company sales growth remained
subdued during the period under review. The company sold a total of
38,858 units compared to 37,259 units in the same period last year,
up by 4 percent. In the third quarter, the company sold 14,792 units
against 14,851 units in the same period last year.
Samina Kanji, an analyst at BMA Research, a 15 percent year-on-year
growth in auto sales is primarily due to the yellow cab scheme of the
Punjab government. On the other hand, motorcycles and three
wheelers sales increased on month-on-month basis and sales in March
stood at 70,671 units as compared to 65,011 an increase of 5,660
units, the data showed. Total sales of farm tractors decline to 6,229
units as compared to previous month sales of 8,906 units. Sales of
trucks and buses sales in March stood at 379 units as compared to
304 units in February 2012.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-102452-Auto-sales-show-
15pc-growth-in-nine-months
APRIL 12, 2012 10:01 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Telenor to offer agri info to farers via its wireless telephone network,
reports newstribe:
Telenor Pakistan, in partnership with the Government of Khyber-
Pakhtunkhwa, will provide agriculture and livestock information to
farmers in the province.
In addition, farmers will be offered the Easypaisa platform to trade in
agricultural commodities. Information will be provided via push SMS,
voice recordings and small community gatherings.
The aim is to benefit farmers — especially small farmers — by
providing them relevant and timely information, and the ability to
carry out related mobile transactions on their handsets. All
information will be provided by the Government of Khyber-
Pakhtunkhawa while Telenor Pakistan will act as the distribution
channel of the information. A pilot project will initially be run in
Mardan district.
To mark the occasion an MoU signing ceremony was arranged at a
local hotel. Arbab Muhammad Ayub Jan, Minister for Agriculture,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the chief guest. The MoU was signed by
Roar Bjaerum, Vice President Financial Services, Telenor Pakistan
and Arbab Muhammad Ayub Jan, Minister for Agriculture, Khyber-
Pakhtunkhwa.
Roar Bjaerum, in his comments, highlighted the benefits the project
will bring to the farmers of the province. “We will provide farmers the
information they need to grow better crops and to raise hardy
livestock. By doing so, we want to help them make more informed
decisions when it comes to agriculture and livestock planning and
trading. This way we hope to contribute toward alleviating poverty
and empowering farmers economically. We will also offer mobile
branchless banking solutions to enable farmers to carry out
transactions right on their mobile phones through Easypaisa.”
Ayub Jan in his remarks spoke about the partnership between Telenor
Pakistan and the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Agriculture,
Livestock and Cooperative Department (ALCD). He said: “The
Department has the mandate of promoting the interests of agriculture
and livestock farmers in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It has
undertaken various initiatives to modernize the sector, and to
augment the dissemination of relevant information to farmers to help
increase production. Our partnership with Telenor Pakistan is another
step in this direction. We are ready to offer all the support it needs to
achieve its goals for this project.”
Small farmers, living in far-flung areas, are usually isolated from
market information which may help them in dealing with commodity
whole sellers (‘beopari’ and ‘arthis). They also do not have immediate
access to information about best practices in agriculture and livestock
rearing.
Telenor Pakistan’s project will help farmers in getting the information
they need to increase yield through access to best quality
commodities, latest agri trends, information on judicious use of
pesticides and fertilizers, best breed of livestock, new methods of
disease control, and quality feed and fodder.
http://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/04/18/telenor-to-partner-with-kp-
to-provide-agri-information-to-farmers/
MAY 2, 2012 7:35 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Dawn report on Pakistan's plan to export surplus sugar:
The government intends to export 400,000 tons of surplus sugar and
believes that the performance of the agricultural sector is improving
despite natural calamities.
“The good news about surplus sugar was given to President Asif Ali
Zardari during a meeting at the presidency by a delegation of the
Pakistan Sugar Mills Association led by its chairman Javed A. Kayani,”
president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said on Thursday.
The PSMA chief said sugar production stood at about 4.7 million tons.
After meeting the domestic requirement of 4.2 million tons, about
400,000 tons of sugar is available for export. “Export will enable mill
owners to make payments to growers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab
and Sindh,” he said.
Sources in the agriculture sector said the country was exporting
wheat and rice and sugar would be the third major commodity to be
exported. They said the Punjab government was already exporting
wheat and the centre was sending the surplus crop to Iran.
President Zardari expressed satisfaction over the sugar production
and said: “It is a matter of great satisfaction that despite
unprecedented natural calamities the country is not only in a position
to meet its requirements but is also poised to export sugar.”
He said the government was committed to working in consultation
with the sugar industry to solve its problems. “Only through the pro-
active involvement of the business community and industrialists, the
continuity of policies could be
ensured,” the president was quoted as saying.
He advised the government to hold a meeting with the PSMA so that
its proposal to export sugar could be sent to the Economic
Coordination Committee of the cabinet for consideration.
http://dawn.com/2012/05/04/plan-to-export-400000-tons-of-sugar/
MAY 4, 2012 8:50 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's Daily times report on cotton & textile industry in Pakistan:
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), with over 50 percent
($14.8 billion) contribution to the total national exports ($25 billion)
and 78 percent share in the textile exports of the country, is the
largest trade union of Pakistan as well as contributor to the national
economy of the country.
Due to effective policies and leadership of APTMA, this year cotton
production increased to 15 million bales despite two million bales lost
due to floodwaters, as compared to the last year’s 11.7 million bales,
thus making Pakistan self-sufficient in cotton sector for the first time
in 10 years.
To rid the country of energy crisis, the association is actively engaged
with various stakeholders, including the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline
Limited (SNGPL), Petroleum and Gas Ministry and standing
committees of the National Assembly. Out of 300 days, gas remained
closed for 156 days causing loss of $5 billion cotton to production
capacity of the country. Advocating the case effectively with the
government, the association ensured five days a week gas supply to
the industry, besides getting electricity load shedding exemption.
The association’s proposal of levying gas surcharge for gas
exploration and laying of new pipelines was accepted. The APTMA
leadership and members are also advocating for the Vision 2020 to
resolve the gas crisis and sustainable growth of the energy sector,
while clarifying how much energy is going to be produced from hydel,
coal and other sources besides gas exploration. The association
believes that only a futuristic vision can ensure affordable energy for
the industry as well as domestic sector of the country.
APTMA group leader Gohar Ejaz said their strong advocacy for the
free market mechanism during 2010-11 helped transfer Rs 400 million
to Pakistani cotton farmers, equal to their income of eight years, and
in the wake of price increase in the international market, remained
the biggest contribution of APTMA for the welfare of the stakeholders.
He said farmers got prosperity, which resulted in value addition to the
crop and an increase of $5 billion export. While in 2011-12, resolving
the energy crisis for the Punjab industry remained one of the biggest
contributions of APTMA, he said.
----------
Research and development is the key to survival and growth of any
industry. Realising this aspect, APTMA has made it a law to collect Rs
20 per cotton bale from the mills to spend this amount on research
through Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC), a semi-
autonomous body, with the federal minister for textile industry as its
president. Last year, APTMA contributed Rs 300 million, as collected
against the production of 15 million cotton bales in the country.
APTMA is also fulfilling its corporate social responsibility towards
promotion of textile education in Pakistan. The association established
textile colleges in Faisalabad, Karachi and other cities, which were
later handed over to the government.
Established since 1957, APTMA is the premier textile industry
association having 350 member mills and offices in Lahore, Karachi,
Islamabad and Peshawar. Although textile sector has a total 14
associations of various stakeholders, APTMA is the only body, which is
taking up the case of whole sector to provincial, national and
international level for the growth of the sector – from farmer to
exporters.
Textile industry contributes 8.5 percent of the GDP, while APTMA is
50 percent of 8.5 percent textile contribution towards GDP. APTMA
provides direct employment to one million workforce as well as three
million indirect jobs.
Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton producer in the world as 98
percent of 15 million cotton bales produced in Pakistan are consumed
by APTMA members.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\05\07\story_7-
5-2012_pg7_5
MAY 6, 2012 4:10 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's Daily Times on Asad Umar's assessment of Pak agriculture:
The low output also adversely affects capability of farmers to earn
more, he added. Pakistan, which has been dubbed as a ‘great bread
basket’ is struggling due to these factors and is now increasingly
becoming an importer of a large number of agri commodities. At the
same time, Umar said, Pakistan agriculture sector also faces huge
post-harvest losses of 40-80 percent if compared with global
benchmark. This double blow—low output and high losses, diminishes
income of growers further, he maintained.
Similar is the case with agriculture credit facilities, farm
mechanisation and availability of water, he said and added these
structural problems need to be addressed. As against 20-25 tractors
per square kilometres of arable land for global benchmarks,
availability of tractor for Pakistani farmer has been about 10 times
lower from this level.
Much to the dismay of farmers, he said, agricultural credit disbursed
to farmers in Pakistan declined from $3.4 billion in 2007-08 to $3.1
billion in 2010-11. During the same period, Indian Agricultural Credit
increased from $63.3 billion to $103.4 billion, he said. Agricultural
credit in Pakistan is 8 percent of agri gross domestic product while in
India, it is 31 percent of agri GDP.
Water, being main input for agriculture sector also failed to get
attention as far as increasing its supplies for farmers, Umar said and
added losses of water are as high as 40 percent before reaching farm
gate. He stressed the need to plug these wastages on priority bases.
He lamented that despite having tremendous strengths and
opportunities, output of agriculture sector is simply pathetic. Our
mangoes, citrus and basmati rice are the best in the world, he said
and added 75 percent of arable land is irrigated, which is an
unmatched blessing.
The real potential agriculture sector is not merely a dream, he said
and added many progressive farmers are achieving these levels in
various parts of the country. Progressive farmer yields are around 50
percent higher than average yields for the main crops , he said.
Emphasising efficient use of water for reaping optimal benefits, Umar
said irrigating an additional 5.0 percent land can generate Rs 100
billion additional farm income.
Sharing his vision about farmer cooperatives, Umer said economy of
scale in agriculture sector can be achieved by forming vibrant clusters
of farmers. Unfortunately, he said, cooperative role model has been
misunderstood in Pakistan and that is small land and animal holding
leads to highly inefficient farming practices.
In sheer contrast, he said, Indian cooperatives contribute around 50
percent of the total agricultural credit disbursement and 60 percent of
the sugarcane procurement is done by the cooperatives sector. In
France, he maintained, 75 percent of all agricultural producers are
members of at least one cooperative and cooperatives handle 40
percent of food and agricultural production.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\05\10\story_10-
5-2012_pg5_16
MAY 9, 2012 4:49 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an APP report on Pakistan's dairy industry:
Pakistan can easily triple its milk production by employing simple
methods while latest measures can further milk output by 900 per
cent.
Pakistan has impressive dairy industry which can be exploited to its
real potential, said Economic Councilor Embassy of Netherlands, Ian
Van Ranselaar here on Thursday.
He said a developed environment can help revolutionize Pakistan's
dairy industry.
"A Dutch cow produces nine times more milk a Pakistani cow or
buffalo can produce", he said and added that some measures are
needed to bring per cow production of both friendly countries at par.
The Dutch diplomat was talking to Vice President Federation of
Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Mirza Abdul
Rehman, Chairman Coordination Atif Akram Sheikh and Chairman
Media Malik Sohail.
Ian Ranselaar further said that 16 Pakistani major dairy stakeholders
are due to leave for Netherlands to know the latest trends and
techniques.
He said currently balance of trade is in favour of Pakistan and they
are working on various projects to boost Pakistan economy.
The diplomat said various Pakistani products including rice, textiles,
surgical goods, sports hardware, leather products and fruits are of
superior quality but local entrepreneurs lag behind in branding which
has been identified as a major obstacle.
"Security situation in Pakistan is not as bad as perceived in many
countries which is shying away investors. Pakistan should improve its
perception", the diplomat remarked.
The Dutch diplomats were all praise for the tireless efforts of Pakistan
Commercial Councillor in Hague.
On the occasion, Mirza Abdul Rehman said with 180 million
population, Pakistan has great potential for investment, vast space for
business activities and there is no issue of law and order.
Atif Akram Sheikh said both the countries have good political ties
which should supplement our trade relations.
Pakistan has three times the animals that Germany has, but yields are
one-fifth of Germany's and one-third of New Zealand, representing a
significant loss, he added.
Business community is satisfied with the efforts of the Ambassador
Hugo Gajus Scheltema, said Sheikh, adding that issuance of visa
should be made easier.
Malik Sohail said being the fourth largest producer of milk in the
world, Pakistan produces 35 billion liters of milk from around five
million animals which is worth Rs.177 billion.
"Our dairy sector is growing by five per cent per annum while demand
is increasing by fifteen per cent which calls for urgent measures to
address issues effecting production", he underlined.
Pakistan is processing only two per cent of milk production which if
increased will help boost living standard of rural population and
economy.
http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/1-front-top-news/56904-pakistan-
has-potential-to-enhance-milk-production-by-900pc-.html
MAY 10, 2012 10:41 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a special CNN report on a Pakistani village by Wajahat Ali:
This is a story affecting millions of Pakistanis — and it does not
involve suicide bombings, honor killings, extremism or President
Zardari's mustache.
"What would you like to be when you grow up?" I asked Sakafat, a
boisterous 12-year-old girl, while visiting a remote Pakistani village in
the Sindh province.
"A scientist!" she immediately replied. "Why can't we be scientists?
Why not us?"
The confident Sakafat lives in Abdul Qadir Lashari village, which is
home to 500 people in Mirpur Sakro. It is in one of the most
impoverished regions of Pakistan.
There was a characteristic resilience and optimism in this particular
village. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows
anything about Pakistan's often dysfunctional, surreal yet endearing
daily existence.
The 500 villagers live in 48 small huts, except for the one "wealthy"
family who recently built a home made of concrete. The village chief,
Abdul Qadir Lashari, proudly showed off his village's brand-new
community toilets, paved roads, and water pump that brings fresh
water to the village.
These simple, critical amenities, taken for granted by most of us in the
West, resulted from the direct assistance of the Rural Support
Programmes Network, Pakistan's largest nongovernmental
organization. RSPN has worked with thousands of similar Pakistani
villages to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency.
I visited the Sindh village with RSPN to witness the results of using
community organizing to alleviate poverty. The staff told me its goal
was to teach villagers to "fish for themselves."
Every household in the Abdul Qadir Lashari village was able to reach
a profit by the end of 2011 as a result of professional skills training,
financial management, community leadership workshops and
microloans.
Specifically, a middle-aged, illiterate woman proudly told me how she
learned sewing and financial management and was thus able to
increase her household revenue, manage her bills, and use a small
profit to purchase an extra cow for the family. She was excited to
introduce me to her cow, but sadly due to lack of time I was unable to
make the bovine acquaintance.
--------
Asked what single thing she felt was most important most for her
village, she replied education. Upon asking another elderly lady what
she wishes for Pakistan, she repeated one word three times: "sukoon,"
which means peace.
When it was time to depart, the people of the village presented me
with a beautiful handmade Sindhi shawl, an example of the craftwork
the villagers are now able to sell for profit.
As I left the village with the dark red, traditional Sindhi shawl
adorned around my neck, my thoughts returned to the 12-year-old
girl, Sakafat, who passionately asked why she couldn't become a
scientist.
I looked in her eyes and could only respond with the following: "You're
right. You can be anything you want to be. And I have every
confidence you will, inshallah ("God willing"), reach your manzil
("desired destination").
By focusing on education and local empowerment to lift the next
generation out of poverty, Sakafat's dream could indeed one day
become a reality for all of Pakistan.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/13/world/asia/pakistan-empowerment/in
dex.html
MAY 13, 2012 6:38 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's an ET story on Engro supply chain in Pakistan:
Have you ever wondered where the milk in packaged dairy products
comes from? In case you assumed that big food companies maintained
their own dairy farms that generated thousands of litres of milk daily
and remained insulated from fluctuations in open market rates, you
are wide of the mark.
In fact, only 5% of about 1.2 million litres of milk that Engro Foods
collects every day for its dairy segment during the flush season – from
January to April each year when fodder is available in abundance and
milk production is high – comes from its own corporate farm located
in Sukkur.
The rest of the milk supplies during the flush season and the summer,
when milk production drops by roughly 50%, comes from about
15,000 small farmers scattered between Sanghar and Jhang districts,
an area of 135,000 square kilometres.
Streamlined under Engro Milk Automation Network (EMAN), Engro
Foods maintains a sales force of 1,500 people across 1,200 villages in
Sindh and Punjab. They collect milk, mostly in small quantities, from
farmers between 6:00am and 9:30am every day, which is then
transported for further processing.
But why would a villager with just a few cattle sell the excess quantity
of milk to Engro Foods instead of the traditional milk contractors
known as dodhis?
According to Aamir Khawas, who works as head of milk procurement
and agri services at Engro Foods, doing business with a large food
company offers small farmers a number of benefits. “Animals are
susceptible to diseases. Our network of veterinarians ensures sick
animals receive immediate treatment. That’s a benefit no traditional
milk contractor can offer,” he said.
Moreover, the moment a farmer sells milk to an Engro representative,
in whatever small quantity, the transaction is recorded electronically
in a centralised database by swiping the EMAN card that each of the
15,000 suppliers carries.
The availability of real-time data ensures that money is transferred to
the farmer the day the transaction takes place. This is in contrast to
the past practice of issuing receipts on paper that took at least a week
before a transaction was recorded and payment processed.
In addition, Engro’s advisory service helps farmers increase milk
production. “There’re two ways for a farmer to increase his revenue.
If he gets Rs41 instead of Rs40 per litre, his revenue increases by
Re1. But if the milk output increases by one litre, his revenue
increases by Rs40. We help him do the latter,” Khawas said.
So how does Engro ensure that the milk is pure? “It’s very easy. We
pay farmers not on the litres of milk they bring to us. Rather, the basis
of payment is total solid contents of the milk,” he said, explaining that
milk consists of three things – water, fat and solid non-fat (SNF). Total
solid contents are the sum of fat and SNF.
“It’s hard to adulterate when the quantity is low. So no matter how
much water you add, the solid contents can easily be determined by
running a few tests,” he said.
A total of 13 tests are carried out when a farmer hands over milk to an
Engro representative. It is picked up from there by an Engro van that
carries out another 20 tests on the collected milk. It then reaches the
regional office where 30 more tests are done to check its quality.
Eventually, milk is taken to the Engro plant where the final 40 tests
take place before it is processed, packaged and dispatched to the
retail market.
With the demand of milk increasing by 15% annually and supply rising
by just 2% a year in Pakistan, the dairy sector looks like a heaven for
investment. The Sukkur farm of Engro Foods has already grown 10
times since its inception with about 3,000 cows. “Yet we’re looking for
a major expansion in the near future.”
http://tribune.com.pk/story/378282/the-benefits-of-business-with-a-
large-food-company/
MAY 14, 2012 8:57 AM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a VOA report on Afghan dependence on Pakistan:
Farmers and traders in eastern Afghanistan say that despite a decade
of foreign development projects, they remain economically dependent
on their neighbors in Pakistan.
The main bazaar in the capital, Jalalabad is crowded with people
buying and selling fresh melons, ripe tomatoes and sacks full of
onions and potatoes. Fruits and vegetables from all across the country
come to this market where it is sold to locals. But due to unreliable
electricity and cold storage a lot of Afghan farmers' produce goes just
across the border into neighboring Pakistan where it is stored and
then re-sold.
"My name is Allah Mohammad," a local vegetable seller says
introducing himself. He is selling his tomatoes from one of the many
produce carts that line a busy road.
"We have heard there are no storage facilities and electricity. But in
Pakistan they have facilities and electricity," he says.
Not far from the market, at the main loading station, onions and
potatoes are being inspected and then loaded onto trucks headed for
Pakistan. Gul Morad, head of inspection and regional chief for fruit
and vegetable traders whose office is above the station says matter-of-
factly, that cold storages do exist in the districts.
“Three to four years ago, USAID and DIA built us small cold rooms
under the name ‘storages’ - but their capacity is only 4 to 5 tons. For
these you have to use generators.” Morad explains. “Even if the
generator stops for one hour, the room gets hot and the goods lose
their quality.”
USAID says the deserted units do not appear to be theirs. The agency
did however help fund Morad’s 24-ton cold-storage which he pays to
maintain. The unit runs on both generators and power from the
electrical grid and is a key part of the local economy.
Morad says most of time (when market prices go down) farmers and
shopkeepers bring their produce here and store it for one or more
days - for free. When the market gets better they take it out and sell
it.
Local farmers and traders say proper refrigeration means higher
profits, because they can store their own produce and make a better
return in the off season.
However with too little cold storage, residents now rely on stored
produce imported from Pakistan, which can sell for nearly triple the
cost.
Many people, like farmer Ihsanullah from Ghawchak in Sukhroad
district believe that some of the marked up vegetables are originally
from here, but are imported into Pakistan, stored and then sold back
into the Afghan market.
“Two things,” Ihsanullah says “potatoes and onions, they go from
Kabul into Pakistan and are kept in storage and sent back to us. We
sometimes work in the market so I am certain these two things are
bought by big traders, stored and sent back.” He says, “our biggest
problem here is that we don’t have storage.”
Inspection chief Morad disagrees and says the stored goods that come
to Afghanistan are grown in Pakistan.
But both men agree that farmers and consumers both suffer from the
lack of local refrigeration.
Agriculture is the main source of income for the country however
Afghans say plans to develop the agriculture sector have not been
realized. The Afghan government and the international community’s
efforts to build sustainable storage and supply reliable electricity have
not met expectations
http://www.voanews.com/content/competition_suspicion_refrigeration
_afghan_market_products/667055.html
MAY 17, 2012 10:40 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a News report on US Aid program helping livestock farmers:
Nina Fite, consul general of the United States in Lahore recognised
recent graduates of a US Agency for International Development
(USAID) supported livestock export training programme at a
certificate ceremony, a statement said on Friday.
The programme trained the participants in GlobalGAP certification, a
standard for dairy and meat exportation required by several European
and international markets. By implementing these standards,
Pakistani meat and dairy producers will be able to export to wider
markets, growing their businesses and boosting Pakistan’s economy,
it said.
“The United States is committed to promoting the economic
development of Pakistan. One important element of this commitment
is our support to local farmers with programmes to build their
business capacity and generate higher incomes – higher incomes that
will improve their lives and the lives of their families,” said Fite.
“Programmes, such as this USAID-funded training, will have a direct
and positive impact on the lives of Pakistanis through the promotion
of livestock entrepreneurship,” she said.
Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) is an international
private body that sets voluntary international standards for the
certification of agricultural production processes.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-109037-US-helps-
Pakistan-increase-meat-dairy-exports
MAY 18, 2012 9:07 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a News report on US Aid program helping livestock farmers:
Nina Fite, consul general of the United States in Lahore recognised
recent graduates of a US Agency for International Development
(USAID) supported livestock export training programme at a
certificate ceremony, a statement said on Friday.
The programme trained the participants in GlobalGAP certification, a
standard for dairy and meat exportation required by several European
and international markets. By implementing these standards,
Pakistani meat and dairy producers will be able to export to wider
markets, growing their businesses and boosting Pakistan’s economy,
it said.
“The United States is committed to promoting the economic
development of Pakistan. One important element of this commitment
is our support to local farmers with programmes to build their
business capacity and generate higher incomes – higher incomes that
will improve their lives and the lives of their families,” said Fite.
“Programmes, such as this USAID-funded training, will have a direct
and positive impact on the lives of Pakistanis through the promotion
of livestock entrepreneurship,” she said.
Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) is an international
private body that sets voluntary international standards for the
certification of agricultural production processes.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-109037-US-helps-
Pakistan-increase-meat-dairy-exports
MAY 18, 2012 9:07 PM
Riaz Haq said...
Here's a Daily Times story on Pak mango exports:
Mango farmers across Pakistan continue their partnership with
USAID to maximise yields, improve product quality, introduce better
packaging and create market linkages.
Seven mango farms from Sindh are already scheduled to send
commercial shipments to high-end markets across the globe in June of
this year.
All these advancements are helping Pakistani mango growers tap into
new export markets with each passing season. As the mango season
for 2012 begins, this partnership continues to bear fruit. Ghulam
Sarwar Abro said a private farm in Kotri Sindh has been a partner
with USAID’s Mango Programme.
“We are confident with USAID’s support, all of the ground work has
been done. We have the required standards, infrastructure and
linkages to tap the international markets on a competitive footing.”
More farms will participate in commercial shipments as soon as
harvesting begins in Punjab. USAID has signed Infrastructure
Upgrade Agreements (IUAs) with 15 mango farmers across Pakistan
on a cost-sharing basis to build pack houses.
USAID has also provided assistance to 15 farmers in achieving
GlobalGAP certification under a similar cost-share agreement and has
planned to increase this number by the end of this season by adding
another 12 certified farms.
The USAID Mango Programme is currently in its third year and this
year the programme is specifically concentrating on enhancing the
market linkages for Pakistan’s mango sector.
He said this project is designed to help the Pakistani economy achieve
its export potential. The project has three main areas of interest
including an improved Pakistan trade environment through improved
regulation, policies, systems and capacity, facilitation of trade at
Pakistani borders and establishment of sustainable and competitive
Special Economic Zones, including Reconstruction Opportunity Zones.
The project emphasises capacity-building activities that facilitate
increased exports from industry, services and agriculture enterprises.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\05\25\story_25-
5-2012_pg5_9
MAY 24, 2012 4:37 PM
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I am the Founder and President of PakAlumni Worldwide, a global
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