Ministry of Commerce & Textile (Commerce Division) intends to clarify the news item in a section of media titled “600 rice containers from Pakistan held up at Kenyan port”. The said news item created the impression that the additional inspection done by the Kenyan authorities is a discriminatory measure specific to Pakistan and it is related to the quality concerns on Pakistani rice. It is to clarify that the quality of Pakistani rice is world acclaimed and Pakistan supplies more than 4 million tonnes of rice to nearly 100 countries of the world. Pakistan has a state-of-the-art rice milling and processing industry which meets the health and safety requirements of even the most stringent markets like Europe and USA. It is true that the clearance of shipments of many food products e.g. sugar, edible oil and rice, at the Kenyan ports have recently slowed down, after a few shipments of food items supplied from other countries did not meet the health and safety standards. Therefore, the clearance of shipments at Kenyan ports has been made stringent and additional sampling/testing is being done by the inspection bodies irrespective of the country of origin. No shipment from Pakistan has been reported to be held at the port for failing to meet the food safety standards of Kenya. In the wake of news reports in a section of media, Pakistan’s High Commission in Kenya has approached the relevant Kenyan authorities who have clarified that no Pakistan-specific inspections are being conducted on rice shipments. They have also assured that the situation is temporary and normalcy will resume after risk profiling is completed in few weeks. ***** ?
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