Pakistan’s exports of rice fell by 15.82 per cent in the first seven months of the current fiscal mainly due to the flood devastation of paddy fields in Sindh. The global economic slow down is another reason behind less exports.
In value, the total rice exports dropped to $1.08 billion in July-January this year from $1.28bn in the corresponding months of last year, the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reveals.
The stagnation in export proceeds, especially of basmati rice, is mainly because of several reasons particularly the under-invoicing of rice to Afghanistan and Iran under the barter trade system.
The PBS data showed that basmati exports in quantity fell by 22.95pc to 316,055 tonnes in 7MFY23 from 410,207 tonnes over the corresponding months of last year.
The non-basmati rice exports fell by 24.94pc to 1.62 million tonnes in 7MFY23 from 2.17m tonnes over the corresponding months of last year. Despite a substantial decline in exports, the prices of basmati and non-basmati increased unprecedentedly in the domestic market.
