Faisal Ali Mousa, chairman of Ideal Idea Events Management and founder of Rice Dubai 2011, says the event can strengthen the UAE’s position as the world’s biggest re-exporter of rice by increasing imports of the grain from Southeast Asia,
After officially opening the event, the UAE’s Foreign Trade Minister Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi held meetings with government delegations from Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as with officials from Pakistan, with a view to boosting rice trade between the countries and the UAE.
The three-day event continued Sunday with a workshop organized by Cornell University’s International Institute of Food, Agriculture and Development featuring Hadi Fathallah, trade and food security consultant with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN in Cairo. International rice traders, meanwhile, held discussions with exporters and government delegates from Cambodia, Vietnam and Pakistan during a series of round table discussions.
