PAKISTAN & GULF ECONOMIST sought views from Mehran Spice & Food Industries regarding the price hike of raw materials. The following details were shared by Mehran Spice & Food Industries:
The impact of the 2022 floods on Pakistan’s rural communities and agriculture has been devastating, resulting in the loss of crops, livestock, and essential infrastructure. The unexpected hike in the price of raw materials is an alarming situation in the agriculture sector of Pakistan.
Mehran Spice & Food Industries is a renowned and fast-growing FMCG organization. We are the biggest food export company in Pakistan and export to more than 60 countries throughout the world. We face many problems not only in Pakistan but worldwide after COVID-19, prices are high due to a shortage of cultivation, and procurement of raw material get difficult internationally also. This flood has a widespread effect on the agriculture sector, its impacts are the non-availability of raw materials, inflation, very difficult competition in export and local markets, and the reaction to an environment of tight credit and escalating prices.
Mehran’s products include Rice, Spice, Pickles, Sauces, Paste & Desserts.
The prices of raw materials rice, spice, wheat, cotton, and oil, skyrocketed over the past few months. This inflationary backdrop and a wary consumer affect the situation making the prices of our product higher. It is very difficult for us in the export market to compete because we cannot compromise on quality.
The quality and taste of Mehran’s product is our success with the world’s customers. Mehran is popular as a premium-quality rice exporter, procuring pesticide-free rice from Punjab and processing it through state-of-the-art machinery imported from Germany. In rice we face pesticides problem because rice growers use different sprays on rice crops, therefore we have to select the best raw materials from among the suppliers. We test raw materials samples before purchases and upon the satisfactory result, we proceed to procure. Further, when raw materials are received in a factory, we do various treatments and testing from national and international laboratories to maintain quality standards to sell Mehran’s products in the international and domestic markets.
The increasing demands for our products worldwide motivate us to purchase the best raw materials and strictly follow quality standards in each product including spices, pickles, paste, ketchup, sauces, desserts & salt.
Since Mehran maintains the same quality for export as well as a local market we have to be more cautious while procurement. Due to strict policies worldwide and consumer awareness, the raw material sample receives from suppliers at a factory and in the manufacturing process has quality checks at multiple levels. We have a Quality Control team of over 40 members in Karachi and we also get services from third-party quality assurance companies like SGS, Intertek, PCSIR & HEJ research analytical research centers to get pesticide and aflatoxin-free raw materials.
After the COVID-19 outbreak, the food sector faces different sets of challenges regarding safety standards and hygiene globally that made the procurement of raw materials even more difficult.
We take pride in our quality controls and have Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognized international certificates which include:
– ISO 9001
– BRC
– FSSC 22000
– HALAL MS 1500
– HALAL PS 3733
– Vegan certificate
– NON-GMO certificate
Other than that we have also maintained local standard compliance certifications which include:
– PSQCA
– Punjab Food Authority
– Sindh Food Authority
– KPK Food & Halal Authority
The prominent issues that we are facing are the purchase of raw materials at a high cost, heavy expenses incurred on quality testing on each raw material to maintain quality from procurement to the manufacturing process and till finished products to the end consumer, transportation cost becomes high due to increase of oil prices in the international market and some raw materials we are directly importing from other countries due to non-availability in domestic market or not up to our quality standard. However to maintain the quality & taste which our customers anticipate from us we procure the best material which makes our product top-of-the-line.
We try our level best to maintain the trust of our customers in us and to provide the best quality products and delicious taste in spices and others food products. The food industry has a long history of responding to changing demands for the products its customers desire.
Consumer interest in food products and services has evolved and diversified now more towards convenience and safety, nutritional characteristics, and how and where they are produced and processed. We have also responded to consumer demand by expanding our food products, improving quality, choosing the best quality raw material, improving nutritional wholesomeness, providing greater consumer information, and reducing food-related illnesses.