Pakistan is entering the age of modern barter system as it is negotiating with the Philippines to swap sugar with rice.
If a deal between the two countries strikes, the modern barter systems will allow Pakistan and the Philippines to bypass money systems for commodities.
Pakistan and the Philippines have surplus rice and sugar, respectively, and talks were currently under way to barter the two items to avert any shortfall in the two countries, said Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Cooperatives Nazar Mohammad Gondal here on Monday.
The Philippines, which is one of the leading rice-consuming countries in Asia and the Pacific, is learnt to have shown interest to buy rice from Pakistan. Pakistan has surplus stocks of rice, but it is deficient in sugar.
The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet at its recent meeting had discussed the disposal of super basmati rice from 2008-09 crop lying in Passco storage houses and approved export of rice to the Middle East, Iran, Europe and other markets officially.
Shortage of sugar in Pakistan has nearly doubled its price in the open market. While the commodity was available in the market at Rs65 to Rs70 per kilogram, state-controlled Utility Stores Corporation was selling sugar at Rs38 per kg. However to rationalize the price of sugar, the government raised the price of sugar from Rs38 per kg to Rs45 per kg.
Barter system still exists and some 50 per cent of all production and transactions take place outside official money-based GNP-measured sectors of the world’s economies.
A UN report had estimated bartered production at $16 trillion– simply missing from global GDP figures.
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