Pakistan: Export of food items falls 7.5pc

The export of food group - July-February 2006-07 period - including rice fish & fish preparation, fruits, vegetables, tobacco, wheat, spices, oilseeds, meat and sugar declined by 7.51 per cent to $1,180.3 million compared to exports of $1,276.2 million in the same period of the last fiscal year.

However, in February alone the exports of these commodities increased by 3.44 per cent compared to January. The total exports of food items stood around $166.9 million in February 2007 compared to $140.7 million in the previous month.

According to Federal Bureau of Statistics data, exports of rice surged by 11.2 per cent in terms of value in February, of which Basmati’s exports alone rose by 35.58 per cent in terms of value.

However, during the last month of this calendar year exports of other varieties of rice declined by 3.67 per cent in term of value and 10.40 per cent in term of quantity as compared to preceding month of January.

According to latest figures issued by Federal Bureau of Statistic (FBS) a decline of 0.61 per cent was recorded in rice exports in term of value and 14.38 per cent in term quantity during the first eighth months of current fiscal.

Exporters dispatched around 1.953 million tonnes of different varieties of rice during the first eight months of current fiscal as compared to 2.281 million tonnes in the same period of last year.

However, a substantial increase has been observed in exports of prime quality Basmati rice during aforesaid period that surged 22.78 per cent in term of value and 20.28 per cent in term of quantity.

Figures depict that rice exporters fetched around $365 million by exporting basmati rice while they had brought $297 million into country by exporting basmati rice during same period of last fiscal year.

From July-February 2006-07 exporters shipped a quantity of 0.628 million tonnes of basmati rice to different countries including EU, Middle East and Iran, whereas they had exported around 0.522 million tonnes of basmati rice in the matching period of the last fiscal.

Contrary to this export of other varieties including Irri-6 and Irri-9 dropped by 17.20 per cent in term of value and 24.57 per cent in term of quantity as compared to this total exports of coarse variety rice recorded 1.325 million tonnes of worth $347.5 million while country’s total exports of low variety rice was witnessed around 1.759 million tonnes of valued $419 million during same period of the last fiscal.

From July-February 2006-07 exports of fish and fish preparations slightly increased by 3.37 per cent in term of value as total exports of sea food items recorded $121 million as compared to $117 million during July-February 2006-07. In addition exports of fruit dropped by 6.15 per cent in first eighth month to $78 million from $83 million in July -February 2005-06.

From July-February 2006-07 fruit exporters shipped only 0.2 million tonnes of fruits as they had exported 0.29 million tonnes during the same period of the last year. However, exports of vegetables increased by 25.41 per cent value-wise while a sharp decline of 95.18 per cent was recorded in exports of leguminous vegetables.

Moreover, exports of tobacco increased by 35.64 per cent to $5.6 million from $3.1 million in same period of the last year.

The exports of wheat remained nil during the first eighth months despite government’s permission for export of 0.5 million tonnes while value of spices exports increased by 1.19 per cent to $15 million.

On the other hand exports of oil seeds nuts and kernels surged by 51.61 per cent to $10 million which was recorded $6 million in corresponding period of preceding year.

A significant rise in meat and meat preparations was recorded during July-February 2006-07 which surged by 111.61 per cent to $26.57 million from $12.55 million of last year which kept local consumers in immense pressure due to high prices of the commodity in domestic market.

Source: thenews.com.pk