Pakistan: Export finance scheme misuse harming rice exports

The misuse of the Export Finance Scheme (EFS) facility, provided by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), has resulted in hoarding of rice by some exporters, pushing up the prices and creating artificial scarcity of the commodity.

EFS for rice enabled the hoarders and stockists to manipulate rice supply to the real and small and medium rice exporters and thus increased the prices overnight.

As short crop is estimated, it is feared that if the SBP would not squeeze bank finances to the hoarders, they might create shortage of rice in open markets to maximise their greed of profiting, as the next crop is 9 months away.