Islamabad: (Staff Reporter) Pakistan’s exports of rice fell by 15.82 percent in the first seven months of the current fiscal mainly due to the flood devastation of paddy fields in Sindh. The global economic slowdown is another reason behind less export.
According to the source, 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 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.
As per details 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.
Furthermore 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.
Moreover despite a substantial decline in exports, the prices of basmati and non-basmati increased unprecedentedly in the domestic market.
