Pakistan's food exports up by 18.92% to $3.961 bln in 3 quarters

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported the country’s food exports saw an 18.92 percent increase during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The PBS data showed the numbers increasing to $3,961.469 million during July-March (2021-22) from $3,331.257 million in July-March (2020-21).

Rice exports, with an increase of 14.96 percent, increased from $1,560.429 million to $1,793.909 million.

The exports of Basmati rice increased from $408.117 million to $496.389 million, which is an 21.63 percent increase. Moreover, an increase in other rice products were recorded from $1,152.312 million to $1,297.519 million, which is a 12.60 sharing growth increase.

The exports of fish and its preparations were recorded from$303.782 million to $309.979 million which is 2.04 percent increase. As far as fruit exports are concerned, PBS data revealed that the numbers increased from $378.575 million to $294.538 million, which is a 4.22 percent increase.

The exports of vegetables increased by 1.09 percent, from $245.739 million to $248.413 million; leguminous vegetables (pulses) by 100 percent, from zero exports to $0.068 million; tobacco by 59.35 percent, from $24.736 million to $39.418 million; spices by 18.05 percent, from $70.524 million to $83.251 million; oil seeds, nuts and kernals by 131.41 percent, from $76.348 million to $176.678 million; meat and meat preparations by 1.18 percent, from $247.010 million to $249.934 million whereas the exports of all other food items increased by 56.86 percent, from $424.114 million to $665.282 million.

Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, the exports of food commodities went up by 10.22 percent during March 2022 as compared to the same month last year. They were recorded at $526.466 million against the exports of $477.668 million.

The exports of food commodities, on a month-on-month basis, climbed from 8.96 million in March 2022 as compared to the exports of $483.162 million in February 2022.

It is to be noted that the overall exports saw an 24.67 percent increase during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (2021-22) as compared to the corresponding months of last year.

The exports from the country were recorded at $23.298 billion during July-March (2021-22) against the exports of $18.687 billion recorded during July-March (2020-21), showing a growth of 24.67 percent.

The imports saw an 48.63 percent increase from $39.489 billion last year to $58.691 billion in July-March (2021-22).

The imports into the country increased from $5.631 billion in March 2021 to $6.186 billion in March 2022, showing a growth of 9.86 percent, according to PBS data.