Third biggest urea maker of Pakistan, Engro Chemicals Ltd. has planned to establish a rice processing plant in the central Punjab to ship the basmati variety to the Middle East and Europe.

The company has announced it in a letter to the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE).

The company has said that the work-out of the new plant will be accomplished by the fourth quarter of 2010 and it will cost around 3.2 billion rupee. The company said in a note at KSE, “The plant is expected to cost 3.2 billion rupees with an equity injection required of 1.6 billion rupees.”

In an interview back on Oct. 15, CEO of Engro Chemical, Asad Umar said, “Pakistani rice is very high quality but sells at a discount against competitors because it’s not branded or marketed properly.”

At present, Pakistan is the fourth-largest exporter of rice in world and it has a production target of 6.4 million tons for the coming year. Company is also planning to export 4 million tons of rice by the end of this year after production exceeds domestic consumption.