KARACHI, April 26: Pakistan sold a record 2.8 million tons of rice in the year to April 22, up more than 27 per cent from last year, a senior industry official said on Wednesday. “The rice export revenues have crossed $1 billion this year, beating the previous all-time high of $933 million in the last season,” Abdul Majid, Chairman of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, told Reuters.
“We would be able to export rice worth of $1.20 billion this year because we still have three more months to complete the season and around 300,000 tons of exportable rice is also available.”
Mr Majid said the record overseas sales were made after a big harvest last season, when the rice crop was 5.5 million tons against 4.8 million in 2004-05.
Annual domestic consumption of rice is about 2.3 million tons.
According to REAP data, private traders had exported 1.3 million tons of various varieties of aromatic basmati and 1.5 million tons of Irri-6 rice as of April 22. The main buyers of Pakistani rice were Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the Philippines.
Mr Majid said the country planned to increase rice exports in the fiscal year 2006-07 following reports of another big harvest despite fierce competition from Southeast Asia.
“If the crop situation remains as expected, we would see at least 10 to 15pc increase in overseas sales next year,” he added.
Agriculture ministry officials expect the 2006-07 rice crop to exceed 5.7m tons.—Reuters
