Pakistan’s rice exports cross billion dollar mark in 7 months

By APD writer Muhammad Sohail

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 10 (APD) -- Pakistan’s rice exports crossed the mark of one billion U.S. dollars during the first seven months of the ongoing fiscal year July 2017 to June 2018, an official said on Saturday.

Senior Vice-Chairman of Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) Rafique Suleman said that so far 2.28 million tonnes of rice amounting to 1.06 billion U.S. dollars were exported during the seven-month period from July 2017 to January 2018 against 1.971 million tonnes exports worth 820 million U.S. dollars for the same period a year ago.

“It shows a 29.27 percent growth in terms of value and 15.68 percent in terms of quantity as the sector breaks out of the crisis it had been facing for the last three years,” said the official.

He hoped that over four million tonnes rice export target for the ongoing fiscal year would be achieved, adding that they are eyeing European countries where some other countries likely to lose their market as pesticide residue was found in their rice.

According to the official, Kenya is the largest buyer of Pakistani rice as during the current fiscal year total 284,000 tonnes of rice amounting to 102 million U.S. dollars had been exported to it followed by China, the second largest destination of Pakistani rice.

Last year, The Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) in collaboration with a hybrid rice seeds research organization from China had initiated a campaign to promote hybrid seed cultivation across the crop growing areas of the country to help farmers enhance their per acre yield significantly.

The newly developed rice seed variety would help Pakistan to produce an extra surplus, increasing profitability of the country by exporting extra commodity to other countries.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)