Pakistan’s food exports witnessed a hike of 18.92 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year against the corresponding period of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.
During July-March (2021-22), the exports of several food commodities were recorded at $3,961.469 million against the exports of $3,331.257 million in July-March (2020-21), data released by PBS.
However, the food commodities that have a major contribution to positive growth in trade are rice, the exports of which increased by 14.96 percent, from $1,560.429 million to $1,793.909 million.
The exports of Basmati rice, among the rice commodities, increased from $408.117 million to $496.389 million, showing a growth of 21.63 percent while the exports of other rice commodities went up from $1,152.312 million to $1,297.519 million, an increase of 12.60 percent.
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The PBS data further revealed that the exports of vegetables grew by 1.09 percent, from $245.739 million to $248.413 million; spices by 18.05 percent, from $70.524 million to $83.251 million; leguminous vegetables (pulses) by 100 percent, from zero exports to $0.068 million oil seeds, nuts and kernels by 131.41 percent, from $76.348 million to $176.678 million; tobacco by 59.35 percent, from $24.736 million to $39.418 million; meat and meat preparations by 1.18 percent, from $247.010 million to $249.934 million and the exports of all other food items rose by 56.86 percent, from $424.114 million to $665.282 million.
Meanwhile, the other food commodities that contribute positively to the economy included fish and fish preparations. The exports of these items increased by 2.04 percent, from $303.782 million to $309.979 million while the exports of fruits went up by 4.22 percent, from $378.575 million to $294.538 million.
On a year-on-year basis, the exports of food items climbed up by 10.22 percent in the month of March 2022 compared to the same month of last year, PBS reported.
Meanwhile, on a month-on-month basis, the exports of food commodities grew by 8.96 million during March 2022 against the exports of $483.162 million in February 2022.
It is worth mentioning that the overall exports from the country observed growth of 24.67 percent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (2021-22) against the corresponding months of the previous year.
