KARACHI, June 20: Pakistani rice prices were steady to firmer over the past week, supported by dwindling stocks, and exports will remain slow in coming weeks, traders said on Tuesday.

“There is some sporadic demand from Kenya and apart from that nothing is happening in the market,” said a Karachi-based exporter. He said traders had covered their stock positions until September to meet domestic demand, while stocks of only 75,000 tons from the last crop were available for export. Domestic prices were likely to stay high because of the depleted stocks, he said.

Another exporter said market activity would pick up in September but much would depend on the size of the crop, which had been hit by a shortage of water.

“We are concerned that less rice will be available next season because of the drought in Irri sowing areas,” he said.

The government has estimated a harvest of 5.7 million tons from the current crop but traders said they expected it to be much smaller from the previous harvest of 5.8 million tons.

Traders said the total 2006-07 rice harvest was expected to be about 4.8 to 4.9 million tons. Annual domestic consumption is about 2.3 million tons.

Pakistan exported a record 2.9 million tons of rice in the year to June 2, up more than 28 per cent from last year. Rice export revenues have exceeded $1.1 billion this year, beating the previous high of $933 million set last season. The main buyers of Pakistani rice were Iraq, Iran, Africa Afghanistan and the Philippines.

Pakistani traders were quoting export prices of $240-$242 per ton for the Irri-6 variety, about $10 higher than other countries.—Reuters